J-List is located in Gunma Prefecture, a ho-hum place 100 km north of Tokyo that’s famous for…well, nothing, really. Gunma ranks dead last out of Japan’s 47 prefectures in terms of making an impression on people, and many Japanese would have trouble finding us on a map, assuming we’re part of the cold Tohoku region when we’re actually in the Kanto (Tokyo) area. The reason for our lack of fame is what I called the Fresno Effect — like Fresno, California, Gunma is surrounded by places that are far more interesting, making it difficult to stand out in people’s minds much. The other day I caught a variety show that promised to improve the image of Gunma by introducing the best parts of it to everyone. The show laid out all the positive images of our prefecture — its excellent onsen hot spring towns that have been operated for hundreds of years, convenient skiing, cultural images like those Daruma dolls, ample nature and parks, plus the tendency of Japanese Prime Ministers to hail from our prefecture (my wife says it’s an indication of how bad they want to leave). Gunma is an industrial powerhouse too, the show said, sporting one of the only three factories making Haagen-Daz ice cream in the world (I didn’t know that one), and being the leading Japanese producer of…ukuleles (^_^’)
Yes, a place that’s “famous for not being famous for anything” like Gunma needs to learn to laugh at itself just a bit. You can get a feel for the ironic humor of Gunma residents through Nichijou, the anime and manga that’s a blend of slice-of-life stories about four high school girls, one of whom is a robot made by a genius five-year-old professor, with deadpan jokes about Buddhist statues and other crazy stuff thrown in. The story is created by Arawi Keiichi, who happened to live in the exact neighborhood J-List is based in — I like to think he came to buy Shonen Jump on Sundays from my in-laws’ liquor store — and the self-effacing jokes in the series are definitely something a Gunma resident could think of. The latest mini-meme to hit Japanese video site Nico Douga is to make fun of how rural a place Gunma is, substituting images of the most desolate parts of Africa and Photoshopping in road signs that say Gunma, then making statements like, “Well I’m off to Gunma. If you don’t hear from me in three days, send a search party!”
(Pictures of “Gunma” as seen through 2ch)
A poster for a “Gunma Holiday” parodying Roman Holiday.
