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The story
The news that Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has partnered with the school drama ‘GTO,’ while the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare have similarly tied up with popular titles, became a hot topic on 5channel’s Newsplus board. Given that GTO’s protagonist, Eikichi Onizuka, was originally written as a “wildly unconventional problem teacher,” commenters questioned whether he was really the right fit for promoting the appeal of the teaching profession — and the discussion soon spiraled into broader laments about the declining caliber of bureaucrats and lawmakers.
Since the start of this year, collaborations (tie-ups) between central government ministries and entertainment titles have become increasingly common. But things haven’t exactly gone smoothly — in August especially, a string of these collaborations were cancelled. Online, voices of discomfort and criticism toward these tie-up campaigns have been growing.
[Actual report] “It unsettled me” — Chiaki Hara raises concerns over tie-up between a Haruna Kawaguchi film and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
In June, MEXT announced a tie-up with the Kansai TV/Fuji TV school drama ‘GTO,’ aimed at broadly promoting the appeal of the teaching profession. At a press conference, Minister Yohei Matsumoto cheered on working teachers, saying, “I believe every single teacher out there working hard on the front lines right now is a ‘Great Teacher.’” Online reaction was mixed, however, with many voicing discomfort at equating the wild, unconventional character of protagonist Eikichi Onizuka with the ideal that real teachers should aspire to.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
That one's understandable, honestly — it lines up with both sides' goals pretty well
If they'd just stuck to collabing with Hatsune Miku, for example, nobody would be mad
Collabing with edgy, provocative titles is always a risk
The Health Ministry's drug-approval episode in Stand Alone Complex (GitS:SAC) is basically a straight-up parody of the HIV-tainted blood scandal, lol
I'd really rather MEXT NOT dumb down its outreach on the appeal of teaching to target idiots
What's wrong with picking it though?
Weird.
They just don't have a heart, that's why lol
And yet it blew up in their faces after they picked it?
Just means there were a lot of idiots, that's all
Apparently Todai grads all go off to consulting firms or foreign companies these days, so whoever's left over ends up in the civil service
The quality's been dropping ever since the crackdown on amakudari (bureaucrats' post-retirement job placements)
Consulting jobs are going to shrink as AI spreads, though
The current MEXT administrative vice-minister is an Aoyama Gakuin grad.
And two vice-ministers back, remember the whole thing about a Ritsumeikan grad becoming vice-minister?
Is Japan actually going to be okay…
Somewhere along the way, the country filled up with teachers who say "I wanted to become a teacher after watching the GTO drama,"
and now even MEXT is putting its stamp of approval on it.
What is going on here?
Is Japanese education already finished?
MEXT itself has no clue how education should adapt to the times, lol
Feels like they don't need to partner with the private sector THAT much
Well, it'll turn up in a search, right? Not many people check the Health Ministry's site every day anyway
That's a fantasy — the people doing it don't even have a concept of 'wasteful spending' in the first place
Bobobo's fine since nobody criticizes it — if anything, if you seriously criticized Bobobo, YOU'D be the one treated like you'd lost it
It's probably just idiots making noise about it, right?
Unlike the Showa or Heisei eras, we're now in a time where the people defending politicians are the ones treated like idiots
If they're making the TV network foot the bill, that's fine
Demand they hold a press conference to explain
Background and Key Points
MEXT (the education ministry) is trying to make teaching look attractive again because Japan is in the middle of a real teacher-shortage crisis: public schools nationwide start the school year with vacant homeroom slots, and the profession is associated with “black” workplace hours—unpaid overtime, no overtime pay under a decades-old law that caps teachers’ extra pay at a flat 4% stipend. Partnering with ‘GTO’ (Great Teacher Onizuka), the manga/drama about an ex-biker-gang delinquent who becomes a teacher, is the ministry’s attempt to make the job look cool to potential recruits. The Justice Ministry and Health Ministry ran similar drama tie-ups the same season, part of a broader recent wave of ministries cross-promoting with entertainment content.
The thread doesn’t split on whether ministries should do these tie-ups at all—posters treat that as long-standing, unremarkable practice (see the Self-Defense Force’s ‘Girls und Panzer’ tie-up, cited approvingly as a sensible fit). The disagreement is over title selection: whether picking politically loaded or tonally mismatched works (Onizuka’s original delinquency, or the Communist Party using ‘Ghost in the Shell,’ a franchise about an elite unit busting corrupt officials) reflects poor judgment versus simply being oversensitive online outrage.
What the thread never addresses is cost: these are typically promotional cross-tie-ins arranged with production committees at little or no expense to the ministry, not necessarily the “wasted taxpayer money” the thread title alleges—readers unfamiliar with how Japanese ad tie-ups work may assume real budget was spent securing the license.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Newsplus) thread「[Waste of Taxpayer Money] MEXT’s ‘GTO,’ Justice Ministry’s ‘Ravu Jōtō,’ Health Ministry’s ‘Mama Seka’ — String of Entertainment Collabs… “Are You Mocking Us?” Sparks Controversy」.
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