Actors' and Actresses' Frank TV Discussions--A Sense of Distance and Distrust (circa 1970)

Actors' and Actresses' Frank TV Discussions--A Sense of Distance and Distrust (circa 1970)
Around 1970, television in Japan had become the center of public life, and for entertainers it was the decisive stage for exposure and reputation. At the same time, however, its enormous size also made the performers themselves very wary. The statements of Mariko Kaga, Minari Maeda, Akako Maeda, and others who appeared in the survey clearly reveal a calm attitude that does not fully trust television. Mariko Kaga's comment, "It would be too convenient if we could just get away with saying that TV has made us moronic," is a clear indication of her sarcasm toward the moronization theory and her rejection of the tendency to place the blame on television. Maeda Bibari distances herself from television as an extension of her work and does not see it as a place to talk about her inner life. Akako Maeda's comment, "I realized that television is not something to watch, but something to appear on," shows a keen sense of television as a stage for processed fiction, rather than a device
for understanding reality. At the time, the expansion of late-night programming and the supremacy of ratings were progressing, and a media environment was being formed in which private lives and commerciality were blending together. Against this backdrop, actors and actresses sought to protect their own thoughts and lives by avoiding excessive expectations of television and maintaining a sense of irony and distance. This frank discourse symbolizes the healthy distrust and mature media sensibility that emerged in the midst of the TV era.