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“Choju to hanei wo.” Or, as some of us are more used to hearing, “Live long and prosper.” Those iconic words, first spoken by Mr Spock in the original "Star Trek" television series some 40 years ago, helped usher in a new era of science fiction television across the world. And Japan was no exception.
While the world of Japanese "Star Trek" fandom is not as readily visible as, say, goth loli or the cult of Pikachu, Trekkies are lurking around nearly every corner. In particular, the series (known in Japan as "Uchu Daisakusen") has had a strong influence on men now in their 30s and 40s.
“Nearly everyone watched it at least once growing up,” says Tenjin Hidetaka, 36, a mechanical designer for the popular Macross Frontier anime series. “Fans told me about 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' which at the time was being serialized…. From the moment I tuned in, I was hooked. It was the first time that I became completely involved in a television show.”
"Star Trek" debuted on Japanese TV in the ’70s, and the first unofficial fanclub, Starfleet Kyoto, formed soon after. A few years later, the fan base grew when the Japanese edition of popular sci-fi magazine Starlog began publishing special issues with interviews and behind-the-scenes photos. In 1980, an 8-bit text-based simulation game based on the series became the country’s top-selling title shortly after its debut. More new fans were beamed aboard in 1992, when "The Next Generation" began its long-running serialization, and then again when small publisher Japan Mix released a series of "Star Trek"-related fiction and guidebooks a few years later.
The series has proved enormously influential in pop culture as well. Leading game show "America Oudan Ultra Quiz," which ran on Nippon TV from 1977 to 1992, used a version of the original "Star Trek" music as its opening theme, and the 2005 film "Summer Time Machine Blues" featured a character who dressed up as Commander Riker from "The Next Generation." Perhaps the best-known tribute came from superstar band M-Flo, who rewrote the original "Star Trek" theme to coincide with the series’ 40th anniversary. Titled “Love Long and Prosper,” the track is available on the album electriCOLOR.
Although "Star Trek" fever broke with the cancellation of spin-off series like "Voyager" and "Deep Space Nine," interest is heating up again thanks to last year’s big-screen release. At the December edition of Comiket, the bi-annual "dojinshi" event that draws tens of thousands of people to Tokyo Big Sight, visitors could find almost any type of fan-generated material imaginable. The series’ appeal to Japanese anime and manga devotees is obvious — the episodes are by turns humorous, adventuresome and romantic.
In the pre-internet days, small-scale "Star Trek" clubs like Uchu Ringo, which hosted gatherings and parties for fellow fans, were the norm. Nowadays, most fans have moved to Mixi as a central rallying point, with the largest Trekkie community boasting nearly 7,000 members. The Japanese version of Memory Alpha, the "Star Trek" wiki, hosts nearly 2,000 articles.
All of this activity has boldly led to where no Japanese has gone before: an official Japan-based "Star Trek" fan club, which debuted in February. Featuring members-only events and original merchandise, Starfleet Far East is the culmination of 40 years of fandom. For Japan’s cell phone legions, there’s also a mobile site where, for a monthly fee of 350 yen, users can access ringtones, sound effects, animated screensavers and the latest "Star Trek" news.
Official fanclub: www.1701.jp. Keitai site: http://web.peex.jp/startrek/.
This story originally appeared in Metropolis magazine (www.metropolis.co.jp).
© Japan Today
23 Comments
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OssanAmerica
No that's incorrect. Star Trek debuted on Japanese TV in 1967 or 68 under the title "21 seiki uchu daisakusen" which made no sense since the series takes place in the 23rd century not the 21st, a point they realized later and dropped the first part. It also aired at 4:00 pm or so on weekday afternoons at a time when every good Japanese kid was studying or going to a cram school so few people noticed.
caffeinebuzz
I knew a champion power lifter in Japan who wore a Starfleet communicator pin, and a Star Trek screensaver on the gym's computer. That was interesting :)
sf2k
We'll know they've won when everyone is wearing only gold, red or blue
xpompey8
I wonder if Hikaru Sulu is revered in Japan.
motogaijin
There are quite a few factual errors with this article. First, the m-flo song "Love Long and Prosper" was on the album COSMICOLOR. Second neither Deep Space Nine nor Voyager were cancelled--both series ended their runs, while the prequel series 'Enterprise' actually was canceled.
sk4ek
Was in the first Star Trek club in Honolulu back in the 70s, was a lot of fun--and led by Michael Okuda, who went on to design many of the sets for later series and movies. Only know one other Trekkie here though, about my age (and I'm recovered, in any case).
Mocheake
Star Trek was an average show. Just because it has a cult following doesn't mean it was actually any good.
Sarge
"Star Trek was an average show"
Star Trek was anything but average.
OssanAmerica
You may think so now after many decades of Sci-Fi fims and TV shows. But back in 1966, Star Trek was conceptually 10-20 years ahead of it's time. Perhaps the reason it got cancelled, but became appreciated later in re-run form.
tkoind2
"Star Trek was an average show. Just because it has a cult following doesn't mean it was actually any good"
Mocheake. I don't think it was ever about the quality of the show. It was about the ideas it raised that have given it the quality of a modern mythology.
The characters represented diverse individuals working together, caring for each other and making hard scacrifices for each other. The friendship and connections between these charachters was very inspiring because I think it was the kind of positive connections we all hoped for in our own lives.
The idea of exploration and adventure is also very compelling. I think this sense is a large part of both American and European culture and something I think Japan has grown to share. Seeing new things, meeting new challenges and proving yourself in hard times was very appealing.
The technology has clearly inspired everything from PC screens to flip phones. There have been entire Discovery Channel shows devoted to talking about the inspirational impact of Star Trek on technology. You can see it all around you.
Finally, the idea of a nation, in this case a federation, where people are truly equal was very inpired for that time and still resonates with us. Race, religion and even economic level were not issues in the Star Trek world. Everyone could be what he or she worked to become through talent, intellect and will. This represents a world that I think many Trekkies would love to see replace our current one where little more than money really matters.
Am I a Trekkie? Maybe not really. But I am a fan, even more so of the ideas the series suggested were possible. For that quality alone it outshines nearly every other series ever made.
Noripinhead
About "Hikaru Sulu" -- his name in the Japanese version is "Mr. Kato." Sulu is not a Japanese name, so viewers in Japan would have been totally confused. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the series, got the name from the Sulu Sea in the Philippines. The actor who played Sulu, George Takei, is Japanese American and recently announced that he is gay.
manfromamerica
Yes, Japan has otakus. This is news??
Badge213
If you search the internet George Takei talks about his nice experience going to a trek convention in Japan before.
Noripinhead
For Patrick Stewart, who played Capt. Jean-Luc Picard: "To baldly go where no one has gone before."
lrodriguezsosa
I've always found fascinating how americans venerate Star Trek for the "supposedly" anti-xenophobism of having a multi-ethnic crew, as opposed to the reality --that we see in this very forum-- of their reactions when encounter a truly different culture, like the japanese.
OssanAmerica
In 1966 Star Trek was the first Sci-Fi production to show flat panel video monitors. It was also the first to use small hand held communicator devices. It doesn't take much to catch on to just how much conceptual influence it had on the future.
motogaijin
As we learned in the episode "Let This Be Your Last Battlefield", though we (Non Japanese)may be black on the left and white on the right, and they (the Japanese) maybe black on the right and white on the right, and may think that we are very different, we are ultimately the same, and should learn to get along before we destroy one another.
As an aside: Am I the only one who thought that the Vulcans were based on the Japanese?
lrodriguezsosa
That's the other point. In one hand we have have a multiracial crew, but in the other stereotype "alien" races. The first klingons were obviously representing the russians. More over, the portrayal of the ferengis were particularly racist and xenophobic. I wonder in whom they were modeled after.
bdiego
Actually, the Klingons were modeled after the Mongols. The Romulans were modeled after the Russians. This is why before the Cold War the main enemy was Klingons, but Next Generation focused on the Romulans.
caffeinebuzz
"More over, the portrayal of the ferengis were particularly racist and xenophobic. I wonder in whom they were modeled after".
I don't think this is the case. That unfortunate comparison was probably attached when the Ferengi's image softened. Don't forget, they were warlike , selfish and outright aggressive in TNG, but the uproar by the fans over them replacing the Klingons as a formidable enemy- Led to them becoming more of a comic-relief feature.
Also the Ferengi were good for pointing out that humans still hadn't completely gotten over some of their nasty impulses in the 24th century. Totally not a racist portrayal at all.
Fadamor
LOLWUT?! The very FIRST episode of the ORIGINAL Star Trek was made in the mid 1960's... well after the Cold War had started. There WERE NO KLINGONS BEFORE THE COLD WAR.
This was one of the forward-thinking aspects of the show - Pavel Checkov, a Russian, was the ship's weapons officer on a TV show that was trying to get established in the middle of Civil Defense Nuclear Attack drills and not too long after the October Missile Crisis. The obvious implication was humans had managed to "solve" the Cold War without irradiating the whole planet in the process. That ray of hope helped the country through a period of impending doom when it looked like we were one mis-step away from global thermonuclear war.
bdiego
There's a reason why the Klingons were made to look like angry asians.
Disillusioned
Yep, 40 years after the event. That makes complete sense.