Performing Monkeys

I’ve never understood why foreigners in Japan agree to make a spectacle of themselves on these ridiculous shows in the first place. It’s like watching a monkey made to perform tricks at some second-rate carnival sideshow. All parties involved in these sophomoric charades – the show producers, the foreigners, and the audience – are guilty of projecting and prolonging the tired trope of the otherness of people from outside Japan.

https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/dumb-phony-and-boring-to-the-point-of-tears-shows-that-ask-foreign-tourists-what-they-like-about-japan?