Recently a friend of a friend contacted me with questions regarding my experiences in the Japanese entertainment industry.  Below is my reply.

How hard has it been for you to break in?
The biggest advantage with my comedy has been simply being a foreigner.  This obviously really helps in getting me noticed.  People remember me, and I stand out at auditions.  I've never met another foreigner doing comedy in Japanese, and I'm always the only non-Japanese at comedy auditions or live shows.  There are a few I've seen on TV, but almost never consistently.  The biggest one I can think of is "Bobby"--an African guy that speaks fluently.

But there have been major challenges with breaking in.  I certainly don't fit "the pattern" often seen on mainstream Japanese media.  I sing funny songs in Japanese, and sometimes they're about taboo topics.  Japanese comedians rarely reference politics, but I dabble in political satire as it provides a well of comedic sources (How could you NOT make fun of the drunk Japanese finance minister!?).  The one time I got on a major 

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A lot of people criticize their parents for everything they did wrong when raising them.  When I look at couples with kids, I think, "Damn.  That doesn't look easy."  Dirty diapers, public temper tantrums, teen pregnancies, and memories of how much of a pain in the ass I must have been don't exactly encourage me to impregnate my wife-to-be any time soon.  I dunno how they did it, but my parents raised 4 kids.  They weren't perfect, and we're far from perfect, but here are some great things they did that have paid off time and time again in my adult life:

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Before moving to Japan from the US, I had been a vegetarian for 8 years (age 18-26).  I originally became one because I thought it healthier to cut meat out altogether as a source of calories.  Hopefully, not eating meat would reduce my caloric intake and unconsciously lead to healthier meal choices.  Seeing how many of my fellow Americans were or eventually became grossly overweight, I should make a lifestyle change now to avoid future health issues.  Unlike many vegetarians/vegans, I chose the vegetarian lifestyle solely for health reasons and not animal rights reasons.

I gave it up shortly after moving to Japan:

• The vegetarian diet (esp. at restaurants) was not as easy to maintain because Japanese restaurants supplied few veggie-only dishes.  I was spoiled living in LA because California in general is quite vegetarian-friendly.  Ok, yeah, I know this is a lame reason.
• My Japanese was rather limited at the time making accurate communication of my dietary needs to restaurant staff rather challenging.
• Many meals in Japan are family-style.  I would go to dinner with a big group of students and a variety of dishes would be ordered for the whole table.  We shared everything much like a Thanksgiving dinner.  99.9% of the dishes had meat of some sort.  I was really going against the grain insisting on a separate veggie meal just for me.  Japan is big on harmony, and this vegetarian thing just wasn't working.

But the primary reason I quit being a vegetarian is that living in Japan opened my eyes to the real problem.  "Vegetarian" is barely in the Japanese vocabulary.  "Vegan?  What's that??"  I looked around and saw a significantly slimmer population with a longer lifespan--a population that had no problem devouring meat.  Why are they so slim and we so fat?  The blame shouldn't be placed on the meat.  Here are more tuned explanations of America's weight issues:

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I always wondered what it would be like to have a brilliant genius scientist as a roommate.  Now I know.