Work as a TBS extra for ... Y200 an hour!!

[Sterling]

http://www.japantoday.com/category/k...as-like-slaves

TBS treats its extras like slaves

KUCHIKOMI MAY. 03, 2012 - 11:49PM JST ( 13 )

TOKYO ―Wanna be on TV? Even if you think you do, you don’t – at least not as an extra at TV network TBS, if Friday (May 11-18) is to be believed.

“Slavery,” “labor camp” – you don’t expect a TV studio to evoke such images. Well, judge for yourself. Here were 160 extras crammed into a roughly 20-mat room, waiting to be brought before the cameras. Leaving the room was forbidden. There was a convenience store in the building, but as the hours dragged on and people started getting hungry, it was declared off limits by sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued TBS staffers. Also off limits were the staff elevators.

When their turn came, the extras had to take the stairs from the third floor to the studio on the 11th – several times in the course of the day. How long a day? Nearly 12 hours, as it turned out. The pay was 2,500 yen, which works out to about 200 yen an hour.

Tempers flared, naturally. The harassed extras turned on each other, pushing and shoving for a bit of space. Some, feeling ill, made up their minds to forego the pay and leave. Nothing doing. “That’s contract violation – we won’t let you go!” shouted one of the ever-vigilant staffers.

What program was being filmed? It was the variety show “Job Tune,” emceed by the comedy trio Neptune, and the irony is that the show’s theme is the seamy side of various kinds of employment, the guests being people who have been through the mill and know whereof they speak. Friday’s allegations, backed by comments from the extras themselves (who, however, are unnamed), pertain to the April 16 taping of the program aired on April 26.

At one point, a “floor director” attempted to rally people’s spirits. “Listen,” he said, “applaud and react as vigorously as you can. If you do, our ratings will go up and you’ll get regular spots on the program.” This exhortation, we are told, was received without much interest.

When, around 11 p.m., the ordeal was finally over, the extras were reportedly told, “You are absolutely not to reveal anything you saw or heard today on the Internet. We have your individual information. If any information goes out on the Net, we’ll go after the criminal and make him or her take responsibility!”

Contacted by Friday, TBS seemed puzzled as to what the fuss was about. “We informed the extras beforehand about the pay, the hours they’d be needed, the meal situation and so on, and they were enlisted after their approval was obtained,” a network spokesperson said. “There was no trouble of the sort you speak of.”

So it boils down to who you choose to believe. Being an extra used to be a pretty good deal, Friday says – with pay averaging 5,000 yen to 10,000 yen a day. Then the recession set in, and the good old days became a fading memory – in the TV field as in so many others.

[Agitator]

This is probably pretty close to the way they treat their regular employees, so what's the story?
It is Japan, after all.

Nonchalantly,
A.

[trip_hop]

People will continue to go to these types of jobs and ignore the exploitative conditions, hoping to be noticed, get the "big break", and maybe make it to an acting career, or even to Dave Spector-like status....;-)

The studios know it too...

[NorthByNorthwest]

Something I posted earlier.

For those hoping for "fame & riches at the top", it's a 'tournament business' according to Freakonomics authors, Dubner & Levitt. In Hollywood, you see an awful lot of wanna-be and struggling part-time actors and actresses waiting on tables; they forgo college and other opportunities because they dream they can "make it" - few ever do. In Japan, a lot of similar wanna-be's and hopefuls in the music industry do a variety of part-time 'arbeit' jobs. Others in the same category of tournament business players include beauty pageant contestants, crack cocaine dealers and those hoping to make it big in professional sports:

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=...1#.TyXXisXrr9I

...
Another provocative question the team asks on "20/20," is "How are beauty pageant winners like crack dealers?"

"The answer to that is they're both engaging in what's really a tournament," Dubner said. "You could call it the tournament of life. Where many professions have a post at the top that looks great, a lot of money, and power, but the route to get there is very difficult. Most people will not get anywhere near there, so they drop away."

A successful crack dealer at the top of his game may make a lot of money, but the ones below make minimum wage, Dubner said. Similarly, a beauty queen does all right, but the ones at the top do very well.

That's why so many crack dealers still live with their mothers, Dubner said.

Robin Harmon knows all about the tournament life. She once dealt crack on the streets of Hagerstown, Md., and she was also once Miss Maryland.

After the glory of her beauty pageant win wore off, Harmon turned to crack. She was caught selling it and served 11 months in jail. She now lives in a halfway house. She knows only a few leaders of the crack game who make money.

"A lot of times we look at life and just see the tip of the iceberg and assume that's the whole thing and it's not," Dubner said. "I don't mean to discourage people from entering tournament situations -- journalism is one, politics, sports -- but it pays to be realistic and not have unrealistic expectations because those can obviously be dashed."

[KansaiBen]

People will continue to go to these types of jobs and ignore the exploitative conditions, hoping to be noticed, get the "big break", and maybe make it to an acting career, or even to Dave Spector-like status....;-)

The studios know it too...

I saw a program on TV the other night about Hikaru Ota of Bakusho Mondai fame. Many of these talents spend years living on close to poverty/starvation levels until they make their big break, which may never come for some. One guy was actually homeless in a park during JHS years before he wrote a book which became a best seller and he ended up as a talent on TV. Another guy was made to hitchhike from Hong Kong to london on a couple of thousand dollars, virtually begging for meals on the way. John Goodman and many other big time Hollywood stars did waitering jobs (Brad Pitt was a part time model) before they saw small parts in movies.

[ttokyo]

They're lucky to be paid at all... A friend's GF (who is very cute btw) appears in one of these 'Love' shows (Sanma's Much ado love or whatever) and her pay is ZERO. She (or rather my friend) has to pay for her hair, makeup, transport, etc., just to be on TV and the hope of getting 'discovered'.

[Effected After]

Wow, an industry with even worse conditions than English teaching!

[wernst]

What strikes me as weird is that, people never asked about the wage from the start. Surely that is the first thing you ask for before doing a gig like that.

[paradoxbox]

japan's tv and talent agencies are controlled by the yakuza

there's nothing much that can be done because all the politicians are in with or are yakuza themselves

another reason why japanese oyajis should hurry up and die.

[tomtucker]

They're lucky to be paid at all... A friend's GF (who is very cute btw) appears in one of these 'Love' shows (Sanma's Much ado love or whatever) and her pay is ZERO. She (or rather my friend) has to pay for her hair, makeup, transport, etc., just to be on TV and the hope of getting 'discovered'.

Sure it is your friend's GF? I am pretty sure one of the requirements of being on that show is that you are single at the time.

[Andun]

I saw a program on TV the other night about Hikaru Ota of Bakusho Mondai fame. Many of these talents spend years living on close to poverty/starvation levels until they make their big break, which may never come for some. One guy was actually homeless in a park during JHS years before he wrote a book which became a best seller and he ended up as a talent on TV.

All that slaving so they can say 'umai!' on the box 365 days of the year.

[NorthByNorthwest]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...se-guards.html

Modern 'mutiny' on Death Railway: Extras playing British POW's in Colin Firth movie leave set after being pushed around by 'Japanese guards' for 13 hours (for £2.80 an hour)

* Extras started with breakfast at 8.15am and were not fed again until 5pm
* They got £36.42 per day (£2.80 an hour) but last straw was when they were told their overtime would be £4 an hour