Aisuru futari

[Aaron Gerow]

As Markus mentioned a few days ago, one of the big hubbubs in the papers 
has been over the yarase (faking) incident in the popular TV show "Aisuru 
futari, wakareru futari" (perhaps "Loving Couples, Parting Couples" is a 
decent translation), which features married couples on the verge of 
separating duking it out on air while Mina Monta and Mikawa Ken'ichi try 
to convince them to stay together.  It turns out that a couple who 
appeared on the show in March were not really married and that the 
woman--who was really married to another man--was a manic depressive who 
later committed suicide.  Fuji TV, which airs the show that regularly 
gets ratings over 20 points (over 15 is considered a hit in prime time), 
claimed it did not know this and that it later started demanding proof of 
marriage from couples wanting to get on the show. But there was severe 
criticism from fans and the media over the untruthfulness of a show that, 
for all its entertainment value, was seen by many viewers as presenting 
real people.  Many viewers voiced the complaint that they had been 
betrayed.  There were many calls for Fuji to cancel the show, which it 
did decide to do yesterday.

The incident again raises the issue of reality in Japanese versions of 
"reality TV".  Any one see the show and want to comment?

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
KineJapan list owner
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