Netflix
Netflix series Extremely Inappropriate does not paint a rosy picture of Japan’s boisterous 1980s boom years, but it also does not give modern Japan a free ride.
The drama, which stars a 1980s guy who time-travels to 2024, has struck a chord with viewers and topped Netflix’s most-watched list in Japan for three weeks in a row.
A time-traveling television sitcom starring a boisterous middle-aged hero has become a smash hit in Japan, juxtaposing the country’s brash 1980s boom years with its more politically correct current.
In the Extremely Inappropriate series, the past is not rosy: there is smoking on the bus, boobs on television, and plenty of corporal punishment.
Extremely Inappropriate pics
When teacher and father Ichiro Ogawa is catapulted from 1986 to 2024, he offends millennials and Generation Z with his disrespect for their perspectives on gender, family, and labor rights.
His forthright statements imply a question: is today’s society, with its good intentions toward topics such as diversity and work-life balance, truly all that it is cracked up to be?
The show’s criticism of how Japan has changed over the decades has struck a chord with both young and old audiences.
In February 2024, it became the first show produced by major Japanese broadcaster TBS to top Netflix’s most-watched list in Japan for three weeks in a row.
Producer Aki Isoyama, 56, initially believed it would be “very difficult” to mock today’s progressive principles without eliciting a public backlash.
She explains that the show is not intended to be a pronouncement on the merits of one era over another.
However, Isoyama and scriptwriter Kankuro Kudo, 53, were inspired by the concept that “life has become more difficult in some aspects today”.
“Our society has certainly gotten better, but in a way more restrictive, too, with everything dictated by compliance and protocols,” Isoyama said.