Subject: Television Linkup Between Teens In Japan, U. S. Aims at Eye Opening 
Date: Published: 4/6/92 (85 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Television Linkup Between Teens
    In Japan, U. S. Aims at Eye Opening
    ----
    By Yumiko Ono
    Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

    TOKYO -- Call it a Japan-U. S. eye-opening session, blatant
 teen-age style.
    "Typical Japanese think all Americans have AIDS," blurts
 out Mie Hagiwara, a Tokyo high schooler, explaining why some
 Japanese girls are wary of dating Americans living in Japan.
    "I think it's racism" that's partly responsibile for
 flaring anti-Japanese sentiment among Americans, concedes
 Simon Park, a Nimitz High School student in Irving, Texas.
    Such candid exchange zapped across the Pacific during
 "Facing the Future," an hour-long satellite-broadcast
 television program linking some 200 students in Texas' Nimitz
 High School with an equally large crowd from five Tokyo high
 schools.  Channel One, a New York-based satellite educational
 channel that's part of the Whittle Educational Network,
 provided them with the opportunity to bombard each other with
 questions ranging from dating habits to trade practices.
    "The lack of knowledge has caused a lot of tension"
 between the two countries, says Cynthia Samuels, the
 program's executive producer.  "Television is great," she
 adds, "because it could tempt you to want to learn more."
    The show, which was aired live to its network of 10,000
 schools in the U. S. last week, will also be shown in Japan in
 May by broadcaster Nippon Television.
    Airing the show during U. S. school hours meant that
 Japanese students, armed with headsets for simultaneous
 interpretation, had to sit up until nearly 1 a.m.  rehearsing
 their opening wave formation and cheering:  "Hello, Texas!"
    But that didn't deter some gung-ho Japanese students from
 expressing such straightforward opinions in English that
 producers decided to extend the show for half an hour, even
 if that part would only be shown on the versions edited later
 on.
    "People are buying Japanese products because Americans
 aren't {taking} part in the survival war," said Tokyo's Kaori
 Kanasawa.
    "The American government is not being fair to us," said
 Hidekazu Sugiura, another Tokyo student.  "American people
 like {Lee} Iacocca say we're not buying American cars, but
 executives are not promoting anything."
    "I was surprised at their outspokenness," says Dan Ewing,
 a Nimitz senior, in a phone interview after watching a
 participating Japanese student perform a short impromptu rap
 gig -- in Japanese.  His previous image of Japanese people?  
 "Almost like they're machines, working diligently," he says.
    The frankness, in fact, was partly a result of a large
 number of Japanese students who had lived abroad, and didn't
 have the language barrier that usually deters many Japanese
 adults from speaking up.  But even little tidbits of
 information created shock waves:  The American audience gasped
 when one Japanese student revealed that her used pair of
 Levi's jeans was so treasured in Japan that they cost a
 whopping 15,000 yen ($112).
    Many students said they had more similarities than they
 previously thought.  But they also discovered the inherent
 negative feelings against each other's countries that may
 have stemmed from stereotyping.  As many as 38% of
 participating Japanese students polled during the show said
 they thought Americans were lazy, while a larger sample
 phone-in poll in the U. S. before the show revealed that 80%
 of American students believed Japanese trading practices were
 unfair.
    "Something burned inside me," says Nassau Peters, a Nimitz
 senior, when he heard that Americans were immediately linked
 with AIDS.  Adds Mr. Ewing, "they think we're drug users and
 are rampantly having sex or something."
    The point is that getting to know each other is a
 difficult process, says Yuriko Kobayashi from Tokyo.  "This
 past hour has confused me even more than before," she says.
 "The thing is, there are so many things that you can't
 understand just by talking just for a second.  We need more
 time."

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