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Why does Japanese TV use so much subtitles?
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magamo wrote:
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?
To a westerner the amount of subtitles in Japanese TV is a curiosity, and I guess its normal that it goes the other way too.
There's no particular disadvantage to subtitles that I can see. It would just be kind of superfluous to a majority of viewers. Closed captions are usually there for those who need them. If someone is speaking with a fairly standard accent there is not much room for a native to misunderstand. And if you miss something, that's what TiVo is for 
To me it's not out of the question that the language / writing system in Japan is one factor why things like use of subtitles are different in Japan compared to the west. There are other things that differ such as many (most?) people in Japan own a denshi jisho, and in the west they don't. Also the reason "Naninani otona yomikata toreeningu masutaa" books, DS games, etc. are huge in Japan, but you don't see "Learn your ABCs for Adults" in the West.
Last edited by vosmiura (2009 September 12, 1:07 pm)
Thanks for the answers, that was very informative! Of course, subtitles are a great help for me, and will be even more when I am going to start with RTK2 in a few months. I used closed captions when I started watching English TV about ten years ago. At that time, I just finished German high school, but my ability to understand native speakers was not developed at all.
English does not have that many homophones, but a lot of words sound too similiar for the untrained listener to keep them apart. Watching British and US television with CCs vastly improved my English, and I hope it will work the same way with Japanese readings one day.
The reason for my original question was that subtitles are not used at all in German TV (except for some rare cases where they are provided as an option of the hearing impaired): Everything, including foreign TV series gets a German dub. Even when there is an interview with an English or American person, no subtitles are used, and the interview is dubbed (sometimes in real time). This is why the concept was very strange to me 
Last edited by stupiddog (2009 September 12, 7:57 am)
Tzadeck wrote:
Digihotaru wrote:
Protip: If you can type around 120wpm with a very low error rate, you can make an insane amount of money as a real-time closed-captioner, typing out the subs on the fly as news broadcasts happen.
Oh man, this is totally the job for me.
You'll have to relearn how to type though, because they don't use keyboards. They use a chorder. You'll also need excellent Japanese ability to understand the incoming speech, summarize it, and correctly input it into the subtitler... at 120wpm. I also doubt it's an insane amount of money because the only people I saw doing it in the documentary were young women. I also doubt there is much demand since most tv programs don't have CC and most TVs don't support displaying it.
Good luck 
(unless you meant doing that work somewhere outside of Japan)
Last edited by Jarvik7 (2009 October 02, 7:02 am)
Jarvik7 wrote:
You'll have to relearn how to type though, because they don't use keyboards. They use a chorder. You'll also need excellent Japanese ability to understand the incoming speech, summarize it, and correctly input it into the subtitler... at 120wpm. I also doubt it's an insane amount of money because the only people I saw doing it in the documentary were young women. I also doubt there is much demand since most tv programs don't have CC and most TVs don't support displaying it.
Good luck
(unless you meant doing that work somewhere outside of Japan)
I did mean outside of Japan. Actually, I seriously did look it up. People who do closed-captioning make about $40,000 with a starting position, and the people who are doing it real time on news broadcasts are making like $140,000 a year. It's in high demand, and you can land a good job with a two year degree and two years of related experience.
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