Obviously, it must be so that all the gaijin learning Japanese get nice subtitles when they download Japanese TV from abroad.

I'm sure the homophone thing plays a part, but I think it just makes sense to have subtitles when you're watching the news.  It's much much quicker and accurate to read something than to just hear it, in most situations. 

Actually the more I think about it, the more the homophone concept makes sense, because that would explain why they put subtitles on the previews for the next episodes of dramas.  Hmm.  Well whatever, I still like to watch my news with subtitles, even in english.

More than one simple answer I think it's more likely a combination of factors:

- Distinguishing between homophones? Maybe for things like news on complicated subjects, certainly not for most programs. Japanese is a fully functional language and people understand each other perfectly when they talk to each other without the need to revert back to the written language

- Useful for senior citizen that are losing their hearing.

- People like to be able to turn down the volume to avoid being a nuisance to others and still follow the program.

- Educational. Kids get kanji practice while watching TV.

- Attention grabber.

- To subtitle any foreign looking person in all katakana so that you know he's speaking gaijin even though his spoken Japanese is perfect.

ropsta wrote:

It's because Japanese is a language rich in homophones, dialects, and regional accents that half the time they don't even know what the hell they're saying. The subtitles help, but even still, a sad condition it be.

I'm not sure if you are being serious or not, but I hate people spreading this myth. Japanese people have no trouble whatsoever understanding Japanese, homophones or not. They can understand the language without it being written down. Even suggesting this theory that subtitles are more helpful really irritates me, because its not.

I don't know why they have subtitles to be honest, I'd imagine its hard to find a good reason. I can't think of much more than "Because they do".

Maybe they just aren't as afraid of reading as we are, so subtitles don't make all the idiots scream bloody murder.

Personally, I think every show should have subs in its own language, just so you can be -sure- what's being said.

First off, we can orally communicate without any problems. We don't use pens and papers when talking to others. We can enjoy radio without subs. Please don't spread the ridiculous myth that the Japanese language is so absurd and has so many homophones it needs subs to understand. Thank you.

The subs on variety/comedy shows are one of techniques to make shows funnier, more interesting and so on. They're there for special effects. If I remember correctly, this became popular about 10 years ago, and some people didn't like it. Some even argued the quality of comedians' jokes was deteriorating because of the subs.

As for subtitles in news programs, why don't English TV news programs have them? I don't see any reason not to. The purpose of news programs is to disseminate information, and subtitles help people with hearing impairments and are useful to everyone, especially when you watch news in a noisy place. You can follow what's going on without audio. It also reduces possible ambiguity and shows spellings of proper nouns that are not always easy to guess. It's not always possible to turn on closed captions.

I wonder why some English speakers ask that question. I thought they'd ask why English news programs don't have subtitles. Seriously, why don't they have this simple and useful thing? Is there anything negative about it?

Last edited by magamo (2009 September 11, 9:24 am)

ruiner wrote:

magamo wrote:

...Is there anything negative about it?

English-speaking countries have gone the way of nonstop infotainment, so the screen is already cluttered with tickers and computerized gewgaws. Which reminds me, I've seen a few people write about Japanese television's production style being a bit more 'old school', can't remember any definitive explanations, though.

I always thought infortainment was less serious and a form of quasi-journalism. I also thought it was the word "infortainment" that had a negative connotation. Maybe it's a negative thing for news anchors to sound serious in English.

It's often said that Japanese news media suck, and I think it's true in many ways. But for some reason, they often try to sound like they're serious and part of hard journalism.

By the way, NHK, which the OP was taking about, is the only public broadcaster partly supported by the Japanese government, so it's supposed to be more serious than other TV news media. Actually the usual NHK TV programs have no commercials, and they have to delete/edit names of commercial products. NHK isn't supposed to broadcast news about politics and international affairs the same way as sports and celebrity news by other broadcasters.

Last edited by magamo (2009 September 11, 1:00 pm)

magamo wrote:

ruiner wrote:

magamo wrote:

...Is there anything negative about it?

English-speaking countries have gone the way of nonstop infotainment, so the screen is already cluttered with tickers and computerized gewgaws. Which reminds me, I've seen a few people write about Japanese television's production style being a bit more 'old school', can't remember any definitive explanations, though.

I always thought infortainment was less serious and a form of quasi-journalism. I also thought it was the word "infortainment" that had a negative connotation. Maybe it's a negative thing for news anchors to sound serious in English.

These days pretty much all TV news is corporatized 'infotainment', and the attempt to fill 24 hours with it results in tonnes of gaudy, shallow information + punditry intended to do nothing more than garner ratings. I get all my news from the web, though, so I'm just going by my infrequent observations over the past decade. There's local news, of course, which, during the brief periods when they're not echoing vapid national news stories, would have plenty of room for subtitles, but I guess no one bothers, outside of opt-in closed captioning.

Then there's government/corporate pre-packages of ads disguised as news and distributed by the major news networks, but that's another topic. ;p

I say 'these days' but as far as my memory goes back, local or mainstream media, even the most 'seriously' treated news stories are just trendy headlines = profit.

Last edited by ruiner (2009 September 11, 1:27 pm)

There isn't really a single answer to this question, and I don't know if I can add anything to what has already been said. However, I'd like to mention that subtitles on TV aren't really used that much for training children at reading. In places like Taiwan and Chinese subtitles can be used heavily for that effect, but in Japan that really isn't one of the intended purposes.

A lot depends on specifically the media though. In news it's mostly for clarity, and so it can be watched in noisy places, or without volume, etc. In light entertainment it's for special effect of sorts.

I personally enjoy the surplus of subtitles. Often when I am watching a show, I'll miss something said because of the noises in my environment interfering, but because of subtitles it isn't a problem.

I knew バラエティー kind of shows used it extensively for Manga kind of effects, but I didn't think NHK news used it that much so I went there and watched it. and...

Oh, yea, they use it all over the place. I don't know why I've never noticed it. May be it's true, J people do love Kanji so much. It makes the news feel something like a hybrid of papers and TV news and it's just more lucid that way. It could be just me but regardless, I don't think it's because of dialects. I don't usually see people who have strong enough accent for me to not comprehend them on TV.

Last edited by masaman (2009 September 11, 8:00 pm)

Its weird how the subtitles don't exactly match what the person says sometimes or how its not every word but some picked phrases. And how its all bubbly and colorful fonts used even in the news.

Is Closed Caption an option in Japan?

kazelee wrote:

First off, please don't end your paragraphs with "thank you" like that. It's kinda rude.

*resist urge to type thank you*

Sorry if I offended you. I was a little annoyed when I read a strange post and saw some people buy that.

Why do English TV shows have no subtitles? wrote:

It's because English is a language poor in characters (they only have 20 odd letters) and rich in random spellings that half the time they don't even know what the hell they're writing. The no-subtitle policy makes sense, but even still, a sad condition it be.

Either that or they just don't like reading.^^

I heard a theory that it was to dumb down shows and encourage them to watch TV, much like the no-kanji policy in many books for little kids.

Why does Japanese TV use so much subtitles? wrote:

It's because Japanese is a language rich in homophones, dialects, and regional accents that half the time they don't even know what the hell they're saying. The subtitles help, but even still, a sad condition it be.

Either that or they just like kanji.^^

I heard a theory that it was to brain wash an instruct them, much like the fake applause in  many sitcoms.

Last edited by magamo (2009 September 11, 8:36 pm)