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Sazae-san: Life Never Changes (Advanced Program) · Spotlight English: Advanced

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Alice Irrazari.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: And I'm Colin Lauva. Spotlight uses a special English method
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Sasei San's life has not changed for almost eighty years.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: She her husband, and children live together with her parents.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: She spends most of her time keeping house, as most
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: postwar Japanese women do. Her children have not aged. She
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: will stay twenty four forever.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Today's Spotlight is on Sasai San. Sasai San is the
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: main character of the longest running cartoon or animated drawing
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: television program in history. Her name Sasaisan gives the program
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: its title Sasai San. She represents a simpler time for
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Japanese people, but the main character's history is anything but simple.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Created during a difficult time in Japan's history, Sasai San
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: was part of a wave of changes that transformed the
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: country itself.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Machiko Hasegawa was a Japanese artist. She made manga stories
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: with drawn pictures and words. She also created Sasai San.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Born in nineteen twenty Hassegawa was a strange girl in
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Japanese society, most women were expected to be gentle. Their
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: mothers trained them that men were in charge, but Hasegawa
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: did not like to obey the rules. By the time
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: she was fourteen, Hassegawa had decided she would have her
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: own career. She was going to make a living creating manga.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Hasse Gowa's courage helped her succeed. She published her first
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: manga or story cartoon, called Badjamasque, when she was still
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: a teenager, but Sasaisan was her first major success. First
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: published in nineteen forty six, the manga explores the home
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: life of the main character. Unlike the sasaisan of today,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Hassegwa's first manga explored life in modern Japan.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Sazai San's Japan was a very complicated place. Much of
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: the country's traditional culture held great importance, but the Second
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: World War had just ended. Japan was on the losing side.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Its defeat forced many changes in Japanese culture. The United
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: States and Europe brought different technology and ideas. Philip Lu
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: studied these changes and taught about them.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: He said, the nineteen fifties were very disorganized, changing times.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: They subjected the Japanese people to shifts in beliefs and
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: changes in old ideals.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: One of the greatest changes was a shift toward democracy.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: The new Japan promised that everyone would have the right
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: to vote on their government. This included women, who had
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: very few rights in traditional Japanese culture. Though Sazai San
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: was still traditional in many ways, its main character was
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: a good example of a free Japanese woman. Sometimes she
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: worked outside of the house to make money. She made
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: her opinions known, especially to her husband.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Hasegawa's original manga also examined other changes in everyday life.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: In one Sasai San is waiting in line for rations,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: a small amount of food given to people in times
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: of hardship. This was a real situation many Japanese people
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: lived through during the war.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: While Sazai San contained many of these situations, it was
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: not about them. At its center. The manga was about
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: f family and the humor that comes from it. It
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: showed the difficulty of everyday life in Japan, but it
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: also gave readers a way to laugh at themselves and
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: their situation. Hassegwa worked through the seriousness of her age,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: but she understood it through laughter.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Hassegwa's manga changed her life. Soon after she first published
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Saseei San, the manga became a national sensation. Everyone knew
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: about and read Sasei San. By the time Hassegawa retired
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy six, she was the best known female
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: manga artist in the country. Sasei San is still one
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: of the best selling manga of all time.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Machiko Hasegawa died in name nineteen ninety two, but her
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: creation would last much longer, and it would change in
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: ways that Hasseigwa could never have expected. Shortly before she retired,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: the company Fuji Television talked to Hasseigawa. They requested her
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: permission to make a television program based on the manga.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: The show, also called Sasai San, first aired in nineteen
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: sixty nine. It has been running ever since.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: At first, the Sasai San show was very similar to
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: the manga, but it was different in one very important way.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: It stopped being about modern life. Its showrunners. The directors
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: and creators of the show wanted Sasai San to be
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: as close as possible to the original Jano manga, so
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: its characters did not change much. Even today, Sasei San's
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: main character has the same haircut that was popular in
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the nineteen forties and fifties. The show's family does not
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: use modern technology. The family all still lives together. This
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: is different than most current Japanese families.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: The Sasaisan show was most popular in the nineteen seventies,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: but even today it holds a wide viewership. Many of
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: its viewers are older sixty years old or more. For
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: many of these people, watching Sasaisan is like looking into
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: the past. Japan has changed even more since the manga
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: was published. The show offers comforting memories. It is a
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: reminder of a time when things seemed simpler. Deborah Shamoun
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: is a teacher at the National University of Singapore. She
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: told The New York.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: Times Sasai San is like a box where you store memories.
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: It has become a warm, colored memory of how things
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: used to be.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: The Sazai San show is not just popular with old people.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: The television series makes the past seem like a pleasant place.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Some younger viewers are drawn to the sense of happiness
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: it gives. Watching this show is like comforting yourself with
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: a warm blanket. But its current popularity can be explained
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: by one Japanese word, natsuka Shi. Erika Hobart is a
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: writer whose family is Japanese.
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: She explains in Japan, nats Kashi is a reminder that
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: you are lucky to have had the experiences you have
• 9:09
  Speaker 5: had in life. You cannot return to those experiences, but
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: this makes these memories even more touching.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Sasai San's show creates this feeling of Natsukashi in viewers.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: It is recognizing the life you have lived. Japan's population
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: is aging, Fewer young people are being born each year.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: Not as many people watch the show, but as long
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: as there are people who remember, there will be people
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: who watch Sasai Sa. This may be why the show
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: is the longest running animated television show in history. It
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: helps people feel happy about what they have done, and
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: it lets younger people dream of a simpler, easier time.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Midori Kato is a voice actor. She has been the
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: voice of Sasai Sun since she was in her twenties.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: She has a different theory about why the show is
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: so popular. She told The New York Times.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: This is the worst thing people are afraid of.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: All women say this is good. The characters live forever.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Holding on to something which remains the same can be
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: a comfort in a constantly changing modern world Sasai San
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: and her story offers Japanese audiences the joy of an
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: earlier time of life.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: What makes you happy about the things you have experienced?
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: What creates natsukashi for you? A good memory of an
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: earlier time in your life. We want to hear your thoughts.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: You can leave a comment on our website at www
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: dot Spotlight English dot com. You can also find us
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Blue Sky, and x. You can
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: also get our programs delivered directly to your Android or
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: The writer of this program was Dan Christman. The producer
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: was Michyo Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program is
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: called Sasa is sa. Life never changes.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: We hope you can join us again for the next
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Spotlight program. Goodbye,