Bronze tramp

Yes, I'm sure your average Japanese person knows exactly who this is.

Chaplin is quite famous in Japan, and it's still common to see people on TV variety shows dress up and impersonate him. He made big headlines when he visited here during the height of his career in silent films.

Chaplin was about as funny as headache.

That doesn't really look like Charlie Chaplin... and I don't think the younger generation in Japan knows him.

@Probie then you never saw the great dictator!

That doesn't really look like Charlie Chaplin...

No. It looks more like Mr. Benn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Benn

@Probie then you never saw the great dictator!

Sadly, I did.

That doesn't really look like Charlie Chaplin... and I don't think the younger generation in Japan knows him.

I'm afraid I'll agree with you on that, but only because the younger generation in Japan and everywhere else doesn't have a great deal of knowledge about anything that can't be squeezed into a Twitter message.

Bit harsh calling her a tramp, no?

I think this is a great idea.

Does it matter if they don't know who it is? It's still a great piece of art. We are ignorant of the identity of a lot of people who have featured in works over the centuries - it doesn't stop us appreciating them.

This does not look at all like "The Tramp".

The blank, vacant expression, and the "regular" shoes are all wrong.

Are you sure this isn't a bronze-painted street mime?

The Japanese know Chaplin very well, he even visited Japan four times. But for the fact that he was watching a sumo match on May 15, 1932, he might have been assassinated alongside then Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai. Young people probably know him from textbooks, and advertisements, the little tramp character is often used. Whether they know his name or not is a different story. But I do have to agree with Pamalot, the statue does not look right.

I think it's the scale that's off. Even though Chaplin was short, this statue is even shorter. It's almost "little people" in stature.