True Stories from Running a Japanese Business (ft. some british guys) | Ep. 042 Lemonade Stand 🍋

Summary

Lemonade Stand Ep. 042 – “True Stories from Running a Japanese Business”

Podcast by: Vox Media Podcast Network
Hosts: Aiden, Atrioc, DougDoug (+ regulars Emily, Connor)
Guests: Chris Broad (Abroad in Japan), C Dog (Connor, Welsh Samurai)
Release Date: December 17, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features a roundtable with British influencers Chris Broad and Connor (C Dog), who have built careers and businesses as foreigners in Japan. The discussion focuses on the realities—both the challenges and the charm—of starting and running businesses in Japan as foreigners, cultural and bureaucratic differences, the state of tourism, immigration, and the narratives around Japan in Western media. The conversation blends first-hand anecdotes, playful banter, and candid reflections on what it means to integrate into Japanese business and society.

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Key Themes & Segments

1. Introducing the Guests & Icebreakers

Timestamps: 01:26–04:48

• Introductions to Chris Broad (Abroad in Japan) and Connor (C Dog / Welsh Samurai), both YouTubers with a combined 20 years living in Japan.
• Joking about the oddity of "five white guys explaining how Japan works," setting a self-aware and light-hearted tone.

Quote:
Aiden: “Welcome to the strangest episode of Lemonade Stand we've ever filmed where five white guys are going to explain how Japan works.” (02:20)

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2. Forming a Career and Business in Japan

Timestamps: 05:17–10:30

Chris Broad’s Journey

• Started in Japan as an English teacher on the JET program; describes the system's logistics and pitfalls.
• Transitioned from teaching to full-time YouTuber with "100,000 subscribers" by his third year.
• Moved to Sendai, became a prominent Japan-focused creator.

Quote:
Chris: “You are used as a sort of human tape recorder for a lot of the time, really. And the textbooks are really awful.” (07:13)

Opening a Bar in Tokyo

• Anecdote about drunkenly agreeing to co-found a bar with an American friend (eventually followed through, with Chris/Charla handling marketing/design, partner handling operations).
• Bar situated in Shibuya; formerly a notorious “5am bar” for foreigners, required major renovations.
• Thematic connection to Abroad in Japan: drinks named after people/moments from the show.
• Observations on seasonality and foreign tourist fluctuations impacting business.

Quote:
Chris: “The most popular drink's called Go fuck yourself, because one of my Japanese friends says that a lot… People pay him money to tell my wife to go fuck herself.” (10:13)

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3. The Realities of Japanese Bureaucracy and Business

Timestamps: 11:00–18:39

• Challenges for foreigners setting up businesses—harder without local connections, lots of paperwork.
• The role of the "hanko" (signature stamp), its frustrations, and stories of stamp-related bureaucratic absurdity.

Quote:
Chris: “In Japan it's like, get ready to die. It takes a few weeks. There's a lot of documents. We use this thing called a Hanko stamp. So instead of a signature stamp.” (14:24)

• Personal stories of being denied rental apartments due to not being Japanese (“Some landowners want peace of mind and see foreigners as a flight risk.” (22:40))
• Differences in expectation and process for property and company ownership for foreigners, even with permanent residency.

Paperwork & Everyday Frustrations

• Stories about convoluted hotel processes, pool rules enforcement, card payment issues.
• Cycling on sidewalks discussed as a uniquely chaotic aspect of otherwise highly regulated Tokyo.

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4. Daily Life and Societal Integration

Timestamps: 18:39–26:13

• Foreigners face occasional hurdles but generally report positive, welcoming interactions—though language barriers and names (kanji registration) can complicate things.
• Even with permanent residency or citizenship, some aspects of daily life (like discrimination in housing) are slow to change.
• Permanent residency seen as comprehensive, but name and face still impact outcomes (e.g., rental refusals).

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5. Anti-Foreigner Sentiment, Tourism, and Media Narratives

Timestamps: 26:26–37:56

• Wave of increased tourism since 2008 (from 8 million to 35–40 million visitors), leading to over-tourism in places like Kyoto.
• Sensationalist foreigner behavior (streamers, viral incidents) highlighted by Japanese media, disproportionately fueling right-wing or anti-foreigner sentiments.
• Most Japanese, especially in rural areas, are appreciative of foreign tourism and its economic benefits—but this nuance is often lost in international coverage.
• YouTube, Twitter, and other platforms foster “rage-bait” and viral negativity, distorting reality.

Quote:
Chris: “...all these overseas tourists have been really good for the economy of Japan because GDP or something like...having foreign tourists turn up, spend a few thousand dollars and then go home is great for the economy.” (32:38)

Notable Moment:
Doug: “The title from this is going to be the UK is failing in 30 days.” (106:36) (meta-joke on clickbait narratives)

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6. Media Responsibility & Rage-Bait Content

Timestamps: 50:09–57:39

• Discussion about the responsibility of large creators to accurately represent Japan.

• Chris reflects on the ethical obligation not to exploit dramatic or negative narratives for clicks and influence:
  Quote:
  Chris: “Imagine if I went out round, you know, Shinjuku and I went, oh, Japan's guys, it's so bad. And I curated a series of images...I could manipulate millions and create this image of Japan that doesn't fundamentally exist.” (55:34)

• Increasing prevalence of rage-bait content and the monetization of negative engagement, especially since Twitter began revenue-sharing.

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7. New YouTube Genres: “My Life in Japan is Bad”

Timestamps: 57:40–62:55

• Hosts notice a spike in allegedly authentic “POV of a salaryman” videos, which seem algorithmically optimized and potentially inauthentic.
• Debating authenticity—some channels never show the person, exaggerate harshness, and curate “misery porn” narratives.
• Consensus: these videos are likely manufactured for clicks rather than real, and reflect a trend of “reality bait.”

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8. Traditional Work Culture vs. New Experiences

Timestamps: 63:04–71:18

• Connor describes entering Japanese corporate culture (through Maylene & a Kadokawa subsidiary), early visa/YouTube gray zone, and quirky business customs (nomikais, company events).
• After-Covid, drinking culture is somewhat reduced, but company parties serve as unique moments of emotional honesty—private/public personas (“hone” vs. “tatemae”).
• Work parties: all is forgiven/forgotten next day, unlike in the UK.

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9. Life Quality, Safety, and Lasting Positives in Japan

Timestamps: 71:32–74:51

• Guests and hosts reflect on Japan’s high quality of life, personal freedom, and a strong sense of safety—even in chaotic city centers.
• Chris: “You can walk through the deepest, darkest stretches of Shinjuku and Kabukichore and it's like, oh, it's safe, it's fine.”

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10. Work Culture Shifting?

Timestamps: 98:23–104:17

• Hosts/guests discuss whether Japanese work-life balance and "overwork" culture are truly improving.
• Remote work and flexible/hybrid models are increasing, with Covid-19 having forced some modernization.
• Bureaucratic inefficiency remains (long meetings, needing approval at many levels, scripting live events/panels).

Quote:
Connor: “There's a lot more companies that allow you to do remote on some days in the office, other days….it is changing. I mean, you know, it's like everything in Japan, it's slow, but it'll happen, you know, but like people want change, so it'll happen.” (98:45)

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11. Running a Real Business: The Joys and Pains (Chris Broad)

Timestamps: 75:02–85:02

• Chris rejects cynicism about creators opening businesses “for money”—describes his book and bar as passion projects, not monetary windfalls.
• Importance of doing projects for enjoyment and personal growth, not empire-building.

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12. Creator Brands—Doing Good vs. Chasing Growth

Timestamps: 85:39–91:01

• Hosts discuss balancing business expansion and maintaining personal/creative satisfaction.
• The necessity of hands-on creation for fulfillment; “when I outsourced too much editing…I realized this is the thing I love the most.”
• Optimistic message about content’s potential for community and positivity.

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13. Concluding Thoughts and Messages

Timestamps: 105:48–106:48

• The episode closes with reflections on optimism, community-building, and the importance of mindful narratives:
• Appreciation from the hosts for Chris and Connor's realistic, positive portrayal of life and business in Japan.

Quote:
Emily: “There are people out there and intentionally or unintentionally, just being like, hey, there are good things going on in the world. There's good vibes and there's good. I appreciate that a lot.” (106:17)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Chris Broad: “In Japan it's like, get ready to die. It takes a few weeks. There's a lot of documents…” (14:24)
• Chris Broad: “The most popular drink's called Go fuck yourself, because one of my Japanese friends says that a lot.” (10:13)
• Connor: “Permanent residency is pretty all encompassing in Japan. It's pretty powerful, I think, like, you kind of just all the restrictions kind of waived.” (25:11)
• Chris Broad: “There are definitely utopian qualities to Japan that the world would [do well to] copy.” (72:52)
• Doug (meta-joke): “The title from this is going to be the UK is failing in 30 days.” (106:36)

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Episode Highlights

• Getting started as a business in Japan is uniquely bureaucratic, often much slower and more paper-based than in the UK or US. The infamous ‘hanko’ stamp reigns supreme.
• Establishing a company (even as a YouTuber) can take weeks or months, as compared to minutes or hours in the West.
• Business and property opportunities are sometimes limited by xenophobia; permanent residents still face barriers.
• Despite an uptick in tourism and isolated bad behavior by foreign streamers, the broader Japanese attitude toward foreigners—especially outside the cities—is positive, mostly due to economic benefits.
• Bureaucracy and outdated technology slow some modernization (e.g., fax machines, paperwork), but there’s a deep cultural aversion to risk.
• Work and party culture are unique: company events allow emotional honesty, and what happens at the party is forgotten at work.
• Media representations—especially on Western social and news platforms—often distort reality for viral outrage or “rage-bait.”
• Responsibility falls on creators to counteract these narratives with honest, nuanced perspectives.
• Bar/business ventures by creators are rarely get-rich projects; more often, they are passion-driven and a way to connect with audience/community.
• The Japanese work culture is slowly modernizing (remote work, flexible schedules), but progress is slow.
• Participants end on a positive, grateful note—reminding listeners of the value of good community and realistic, kind-hearted storytelling.

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Summary Takeaway

A wide-ranging, candid, and frequently funny discussion about how running a business as a foreigner in Japan is both frustrating and rewarding. The guests debunk stereotypes, confront messy realities of bureaucracy and culture shock, and highlight how positive, community-focused business (and content creation) can flourish amid a noisy, pessimistic internet. Despite the hurdles, they agree: Japan remains a fantastic place to live and work—and creators have a special role in helping global audiences see both its charms and its challenges.

Transcript

[Aiden]

Support for this show comes from Rocket Money. Okay, like three months ago I was going through my subscriptions on Rocket Money because it's a really good place to compile all them. You cancel your unwanted subscriptions, right? And I realized that I'm still subscribed to Atrioc on Twitch so I use.

[Connor]

Why wouldn't you want to.

[Aiden]

Why don't watch you on Twitch.

[Chris Broad]

I don't want.

[Doug]

You do watch a lot of my content. It would be hard to give me only on YouTube.

[Aiden]

Only on YouTube. So why would I subscribe to you on Twitch? Your friend doesn't make any sense.

[Emily]

Has a Twitch channel.

[Doug]

I am your co host and if.

[Aiden]

You want to try Rocket Money for [e-mail] lemonade to cancel your unwanted subscriptions, you can go check it out. Like Atriax Twitch.

[Sponsor Voice 1]

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[Aiden]

As you guys know, we went to Japan a few weeks ago and we decided to have Chris Broad AKA Abroad in Japan and C Dog AKA Welsh Samurai on because they both have a ton of experience forming their careers in Japan. They both live there for a combined 20 years, I think between the two of them and opening businesses in Japan, not just their own YouTube channels, but also Chris has recently opened a bar and in Tokyo. And just talking to them before this got a feel for the differences in bureaucracy in Japan as it goes. You know, just working and forming businesses there and we wanted to talk to them about it. So this is our conversation with them. It kind of spirals into a bunch of different directions of how they feel about living in Japan right now. And hope you guys enjoy this. We'll be back with one more normal episode this year before we go on a one week break. And we'll see you guys next week.

[Emily]

By Aiden all right.

[Aiden]

Welcome to the strangest episode of Lemonade Stand we've ever filmed where five white guys are going to explain how Japan works.

[Chris Broad]

You guys. Oh man.

[Aiden]

But on this episode we have, we have Chris Broad, how you doing?

[Chris Broad]

How you getting on?

[Aiden]

And Connor.

[Connor]

Hello.

[Aiden]

AKA Doug.

[Connor]

Hello.

[Chris Broad]

So trippy seeing two Connors.

[Connor]

Two Doug, Doug, AKA Connor as well.

[Chris Broad]

And my periphery, it's just really. I know.

[Connor]

It really is.

[Chris Broad]

I don't know which one.

[Connor]

Just listen, just listen.

[Aiden]

It feels like you have Connor. And then there's a mirror to his.

[Connor]

Left.

[Chris Broad]

A more handsome mirror, dare I.

[Emily]

Say good looking mirror.

[Aiden]

We did all watch Doug change upstairs. Like there was this weird lull in the conversation. We're all sitting on these couches talking to each other and then Doug stands on the opposite side of the room, takes his shirt off. Everybody went silent and just watched.

[Doug]

And then he put on the shirt and started talking.

[Chris Broad]

Like.

[Connor]

It's like the fucking man mask makes you become me when you wear the shirt.

[Emily]

And I just started touching stuff in this studio like I owned it.

[Aiden]

I just felt.

[Emily]

I just felt more calling at home.

[Doug]

He's going to start taking over your life.

[Chris Broad]

B.

[Doug]

She doesn't fly home with us.

[Connor]

Movie. Maybe Duck can help, like fix my workflow issues. You know, program some stuff for me, like Hannah Montana. He. We'll split it up.

[Aiden]

But thank you guys for coming on. Obviously this show is like something that focuses on, you know, business, politics, those sort of things. And I thought it would be cool or I don't know why I said I. We thought it would be cool to have you guys on and talk about what running businesses in Japan is actually like because you've both been here for so long, you both own companies, have experience working just within the system that is Japan and we wanted to get a feel for that.

[Chris Broad]

Hell yeah. I'm ready. Can I. It's really trippy being in the Trash Taste studio, but not being on the Trash Taste podcast. What have you done? When I came in, like the severed corpse of Gant and Joey was at the door, tied up, beaten. They've taken over. Get me out of here, please. Lemonade stand. Why the last fucking stuff. Just calm down with the jokes.

[Aiden]

Get me out of here.

[Emily]

Bye bye.

[Connor]

Adsense.

[Emily]

Chris, I would love to hear because you opened a bar and I think that's such a fascinating. So which character in one piece is your favorite?

[Chris Broad]

Right?

[Emily]

So. So actually for me. So you opened a bar and you've obviously talked about that. So there's so much we could do it. But what is like the logistics of that? Like, when I'm sure many people have fantasized about, oh, I should open a business in this other country, like, what is the actual mechanics of that? Going from an idea into this becoming a thing. And what was notable about that versus what you imagined? I mean, I know you've been here for a long time, but I was actually in America.

[Connor]

Can I get more of the backstory in Japan?

[Chris Broad]

Yeah, I would like to just know a little bit. Oh, 12, 13 years. Started as an English teacher on the jet program. Japan Exchange teaching program. A lot of foreign folks come out on that, right?

[Doug]

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Chris Broad]

And they give you some money and send you off into the countryside to teach children English and did that. That sounds really sinister. Go teach the.

[Connor]

They're not checking with you.

[Chris Broad]

Just figure it out. Some people figure that. I mean, that literally happened to American Pete. I think you guys met. Yeah, we met. That happened to him, actually. Wait, what do you mean? Well, he didn't go on the jet program. He went on, like the ragged program.

[Connor]

There's different companies.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah. There's a lot of dodgy T shirts. A company, not a government program. So the Japan. The one I went on was Japanese government. The one Pete went on was like Barry down the pub. He had like a company and he told me, like, he arrived and they were like, here's a company.

[Doug]

Hire foreigners and send them out to go.

[Chris Broad]

That's more like a human traffic issue, actually.

[Connor]

That company is quite famous for, like, undercutting as well. Like, a lot of their businesses is going like, okay, you. You pay the jet. The official people, like, maybe like, I think it's like 1900 USD a month or something. We'll undercut it. We'll find foreigners who are cheaper, willing.

[Doug]

To teach for less.

[Connor]

Because there's loads of like, you know, people who are like, I just want to go to Japan, whatever it costs, whatever it takes.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah, I see.

[Aiden]

Pete's story is so sketchy. Like, everything you're saying here. Plus, when he. He did it shortly after Fukushima happened.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

And he was talking about how he couldn't get the correct visa and the company just told him, no, no, just come on. The tourist visa, we'll like, figure it out later.

[Chris Broad]

It's pretty ropey. Yeah, I mean, I didn't. I got ill done for me. This is why you should do the job. Your plane ticket, your money, it's all that. It's like a really cozy, nice way of teaching in Japan. But, yeah, I feel bad for the people that didn't get on that and had to do the sort of sinister route.

[Doug]

Were you good at it?

[Chris Broad]

Teaching English first year? No. Second year? Bit better. Third year. Yeah.

[Connor]

Okay.

[Chris Broad]

And then I was like, I'm done now.

[Connor]

I'm off.

[Chris Broad]

And it's fine, it's good. But you are used as a sort of human tape recorder for a lot of the time, really. And the textbooks are really awful, you know, and I had to sort of stand there reading out stupid textbooks.

[Doug]

And so you did it for three years. You're done with that. But then what made you decide to stay in Japan?

[Chris Broad]

So I did YouTube as a hobby and it sort of took off. I think by the third year there was 100,000 subscribers and I was enough to try and do this full time. And it was sort of just before the golden era of YouTube when I think YouTube has discovered you could make money. And that was like the light bulb moment for a lot of people. And I thought, maybe I can stick around, do this. And then I became a YouTuber, moved to Sendai, did that for like the rest of time, ever since. Yeah, and that's what I've done. Really? Yeah.

[Connor]

I used to watch Chris as well when I was like, into Japan stuff. When he, when you. When he first started, I used to watch.

[Chris Broad]

Oh, that's cool.

[Connor]

I don't watch him anymore though.

[Chris Broad]

Right.

[Doug]

You were telling us that you think.

[Connor]

I love Christian videos, but I, you know, because he was like one of the only creators, he was tuned, like more thoughtful content. Because a lot of the times it was just like they took a video in a sushi restaurant. I never did that much more sushi. But like, you know, you try and find stuff. So that's.

[Chris Broad]

I think the thing I had going for me is I was one of the few YouTubers who wasn't in Tokyo and I put a lot of effort into the production of the videos where, you know, I've got nothing against vloggers, but I wanted more like TV quality production. I think that was where the brawl in Japan sort of took off from.

[Connor]

Yeah, that's cool.

[Aiden]

So what's the transition from presumably becoming a successful YouTuber and starting a company for that here, and then you start a company like the bar.

[Chris Broad]

I was actually an American friend in LA I met up with and he was like, I want to make a bar. I was like, okay, well, I don't know much about bars, but I like alcohol. And so we sort of talk about.

[Aiden]

I'm a fan of their work.

[Chris Broad]

He was like, I love drinks. Would you want to do something? I was like, okay. And so he was drunk while he said he was drunk and he was. He was drunk, actually.

[Doug]

That's for some.

[Chris Broad]

And it wasn't until like two years later that we met up and we actually were like, okay, let's do it. So we, like me and my partner Charla, agreed to market the bar, work on the interior design, the drinks, the sort of concept. And he sort of focused on the operation side of it because I'd be shitted. The operations. That's really hard running a bar, you know, And I would have fucked it up very quickly. Um, so that was how that partnership sort of formed. And yeah, that's pretty much how. And also, like, you know, I've been doing YouTube for about 10 years up until that point. And the problem with YouTube is you're interacting with thousands of people around the world every day, but you never get to meet them apart from like events or anime conventions. And it was kind of cool having a bar because then you could meet them. Yeah. The bar sort of became a de facto sort of shrine to the abroad Japan cinematic universe and all the amazing people we have on it. So a lot of the drinks are named after people and moments from the abroad in Japan cinematic universe. Like, the most popular drink's called Go fuck yourself, because one of my Japanese friends says that a lot. That's his favorite thing. People pay. What's that thing? Kami. They pay him money. Tell my wife to go fuck herself.

[Connor]

He's hustling, he's hustling.

[Aiden]

This is like Yuki Kawamura, the basketball player. He was on the Memphis Grizzlies last year. And he was like, what? He's getting interviewed in Japanese and he's like, what phrases have you learned in English? And he's like, john Morant taught me type shit.

[Doug]

It covers a lot.

[Connor]

To love.

[Doug]

Cover a lot of your bases.

[Chris Broad]

But so we got that like, you know, so the drinks are named after moments like that. People have to literally tell the staff to go fuck themselves.

[Doug]

And they all were there problems. Like, it sounds like a monumental task for someone not Japanese to set up a business.

[Emily]

Yeah, like, if I was like, oh, I want to start a bar here, I would have no idea where to start.

[Doug]

Trying to undercut you.

[Emily]

And, you know, you hear.

[Chris Broad]

You hear my way. Yeah.

[Emily]

About the, like bureaucracy in Japan. You hear so much about, like how hard it is to start companies. You have to have these banks and whatever else. Like, what is that? What is the actual process of going through all that?

[Connor]

I mean, you can make it a lot easier if you got a lot of money, have everything in life in the world. There's a lot of, like. I mean, there's people you can hire that will like, you know, like expats who have been living here for like 30, 40 years. They'll, they've lived and worked in the system and like, you can hire them and they'll like expedite this stuff or help you, like, because they've navigated it on, you know, so you can, you can do stuff like that. But that wasn't the case for you?

[Chris Broad]

Well, no. My American friend did work with a Japanese company and that opened a lot of doors and things like that. But it was still a nightmare. You know, trying to find the space was really hard. Luckily we got really lucky at the end. We found a property right in the middle of Shibuya, next to Mega Don Quixote. It's right in the middle, like five.

[Connor]

Minute walk from Shibuya Station.

[Chris Broad]

It couldn't be better. But the bar in question was an absolute shithole when we arrived. There was like blood and sick on the ceiling. It was like known as the late night 5am bar where foreigners would go in and spend, you know, 100 yen on like vodka.

[Doug]

You ruined a classic. You ruined a great place.

[Chris Broad]

There were people.

[Connor]

There was gentrifying. Shimmy Yen.

[Doug]

Gentrifying.

[Chris Broad]

There were people. I love that bar. It was always my last bar. But the building in question wanted to get rid of this bar because all the other businesses hated them.

[Connor]

Because it was like people were throwing up everywhere.

[Chris Broad]

Literal sea of, you know, vomit down the corridor. And so when we came in, it was quite the renovation task. You know, we had to like demolish the whole bar from scratch. And, you know, we built this like big gacha door, like a gacha machine door that you swing in and out of to get in and out of the bar. And. Yeah, but it took a lot. It was supposed to open in like May. It opened in August because of all the logistics. But it's been, yeah, it's been a hit ever since and it's done all right. But I did quickly discover with seasonality that a lot of foreign tourists don't come here in the summer. And the bar did really well. We opened it September last year, did really well until June. And it was like, oh, the customers have gone. And it turns out, yeah, June, July, August, nobody comes here.

[Connor]

What makes sense, Horrible here.

[Chris Broad]

I advise people don't come here. It's absolutely horrible here.

[Connor]

Sometimes people come because the flights are cheap. Like, wow, it's so cheap to go to Japan right now.

[Chris Broad]

And it's like, it's a rotisserie chicken experience. It's like, yeah, I wouldn't wish on My worst enemy.

[Connor]

You can't walk around. It's genuinely horrific.

[Chris Broad]

It is horrific.

[Aiden]

What are the. Because I imagine you've had to set up Companies for your YouTube channel, the podcast, and between all of the businesses that you've had, and maybe at a time when you guys didn't have the resources to pay somebody to help and like expedite it, what are the frustrations going through that system? Or maybe it's. Maybe it's peachier than I think it is. But my impression is that going through any sort of bureaucratic process in Japan is really painful.

[Chris Broad]

There is.

[Aiden]

Or just very different from doing it somewhere like the uk. Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

I mean when I set my company up in the UK 10 years ago, whatever, you can do it in under a day. It's like a service called like Rapid Formations or something. You just go, here's some money.

[Connor]

Loads of companies tick a box and.

[Chris Broad]

It'S like you're a business owner now. Well done. Wow. Yeah. In Japan it's like, get ready to die. It takes a few weeks. There's a lot of documents. We use this thing called a Hanko stamp. So instead of a signature stamp.

[Aiden]

Yeah, you've mentioned this. Yeah.

[Connor]

It's like a. They're mostly plastic now, but you can get some high end ones that are more like marble. And then it's just like an ink stamp.

[Chris Broad]

You ready? Depleted uranium.

[Doug]

It's like you're signing. It's like a custom thing for your.

[Connor]

Well, yeah. So used to.

[Chris Broad]

I mean it seemed cool at first.

[Connor]

When you moved here, it must have been like you had to use it. But when I got here, it was slowly being phased out and now it's only for like still around digital stamp. So yeah, it's like a little.

[Chris Broad]

At first I was like, this is cool. Cause they put your name in it on kanji characters and you stamp it and you do like insurance documents and all sorts of things. But one time I remember when I got my car, I got. The insurance guy came to my school where I was working to sign some documents. I stamped it and then he came back a week later. He was like, the stamp wasn't good enough that you did. And there was a little bit of the stamp hadn't hit the paper until I was like, are you having a laugh?

[Connor]

Every ward officer, every building has these ink pads and these blotches. So you have to really do this with it and then you have to do this technique.

[Chris Broad]

It's really scary.

[Connor]

Really push it evenly press it around.

[Chris Broad]

If you fuck it up though, they're like, we'll have to come back next week and do all over again. And I went to my bank once to do something and I'd forgotten it. I think I'd even lost it. And they were like, where's your stamp? And I'm like, I think I've lost it. And the whole bank, like, broke. All the staff abandoned their stations and met the manager and brought in the regional manager and the manager's mum and the cat and the dog. And everyone huddled in a corner and they debated what was gonna happen. And they went, digit, it's okay. Thank God for that. But it was like a really unheard of thing. You can't just sign. You can't just. Oh, God, no, that's crazy. But the stamp is specially registered at the local government office.

[Doug]

I know, but that's your name to the building.

[Connor]

So you can get your stamp made, but you don't always have to register it. But if you want it on some documents, you have to reg. Register it.

[Emily]

Y sounds like our Social Security number. Like you have a Social Security stamp. And like, you. If you lose it, you're.

[Connor]

You didn't know it. You can just change it. Wait, what? You can just change it.

[Emily]

You just get a new one.

[Connor]

Yeah, like I would register at the government.

[Emily]

Okay. It's just very cumbersome.

[Connor]

When I first moved here, I didn't, you know, I didn't know any Japanese or anything.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Connor]

And so I was. I came through a. An agency that had just been formed and they guessed what my name would be and Japanese. And it turned out it was just like, wrong. Just wrong. But I just rolled it. Say it was like my name. No, it was like. It was like. I can't remember what. It was very off. Anyway, I was like, I just rolled with it because I was like, that doesn't matter. Yeah, you don't want to get. And then afterwards I had a problem where someone was like, is this your name? It looks very different. I was like, yeah, it's my name. So I had to go and change it. But then I had to go and cancel everything and go through all the documents. And that was a whole, whole bull achievement. But, you know, in a weird way, I feel like when you get used to it, you kind of don't think much about it. It's still so a pain. But you just, you just know that everything is gonna be a challenge.

[Chris Broad]

I think to me it's more that I just forget the stamp a lot.

[Connor]

Yeah, I forget.

[Chris Broad]

I'm so shocked. I'm Supposed to bring the stamp for 10 years. Every day I forget the stamp. Yeah, don't forget the stamp. If you come to Japan, remember the stamp. Honestly, I'm so annoyed about the stamp.

[Connor]

It's crazy because you always hear about your U.S. visas.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Connor]

And I had such an easier time getting a US visa than a Japan.

[Doug]

Visa that, I mean, I guess that's true for you.

[Connor]

Paperwork wise. Paperwork. The level of paperwork was so different. Like, it was like. So you've been a bit of paperwork.

[Doug]

Hater on this trip. You've been a Japan paperwork hater. Even in the hotel, they were. He's whining.

[Aiden]

Okay, I have been. I've brought a bit. This is my fifth time here. This is my fifth trip. I've enjoyed it every time I've come. And I realized that on my fifth time, I think I get to be a little fuck Japan. Like, how dare you? There's just little things, like the pay, like paying for something at the hotel was like, weirdly complicated. They have this sign that says, like, you can tap your card to pay. But then they were like, no, no, no, you have to use your chip. And then you have to do it like this and, like, sign and there's just all. And then. Or like going up to the pool the other day, it's like, I'm going to walk up and use the hotel pool. And then the guy had to come out. He stopped me and then had me read the rules of the pool with him.

[Connor]

That's crazy.

[Aiden]

To give me goggles and a swim cap and then assigned me to a lane that I could only be in that part of the pool.

[Chris Broad]

Maybe he just looked a bit shady. Yeah, he just looked at you and thought, this guy, he doesn't know the pool rules, this man.

[Connor]

He's actually weird.

[Emily]

Maybe it's just me then.

[Chris Broad]

Maybe it's just.

[Doug]

Just me.

[Aiden]

The other thing, I. The other thing driving me insane is for a city that's so buttoned up in so many ways, it is insane that you can just bike on the sidewalk. Like, compared to a city like Amsterdam or Copenhagen, it's like, just use the bike lanes. You have bike lanes here?

[Connor]

It's. It's. It's illegal to cycle on the sidewalk.

[Aiden]

Yeah, they do it. I've been hit by bikers almost three times in the past, like, four days. And just like somebody flying around a corner. And then I'm like. And then I'm like, I'm the foreigner prick who almost got hit by a.

[Connor]

Bike, if I'm not mistaken. I Think the official rule is that kids and elderly, I think are allowed to cycle on the sidewalk. But even then I feel like it's because, you know, because the cycle structure.

[Doug]

Oh, there I say it is.

[Connor]

Separate rule. I think so. I think kids are allowed to. I'm not entirely sure. I could be wrong. We need to fact check this. But yeah, it's like, it's very frustrating, especially in like Shinjuku where there's so many people walking on the sidewalk and there's perfectly good cycle lanes. But you know, it's. Unfortunately unlike Europe, the dedicated cycle lanes are kind of oftentimes merged with the traffic lane. Yeah, I can see it's a little hit.

[Chris Broad]

So you just.

[Aiden]

I can see the hesitation for sure.

[Doug]

I would rather hit Aiden with my bicycle than get hit by a car. I think that's like an easy trade off to make and I don't blame anyone for doing it.

[Aiden]

I think it's just. I'm sure this is more pronounced as somebody who lives here or maybe you guys get used to it. But I think because the sheen of all of the cool things that you get to experience and see when you visit here, you know, there's so many amazing things about being in Japan. There's so many amazing things about being in Tokyo. But even just visiting all of these times, little things kind of like chip and wear me down in a way that, that makes me especially in contrast to other cities. I think that's the. I don't feel this way if I go to like Taipei or Hong Kong. It's like things don't. Aren't as weirdly constricted and maybe I've manufactured that in my head. Maybe it's like not as bad as I'm making it out to be.

[Chris Broad]

There are a lot of rules in Japan and there's always signs telling you about the rules. Yeah. Even the most mundane things, right?

[Connor]

Yeah. I think maybe because we've lived here a long time, but I, I get the opposite where it's like in Japan I feel like I know or expect the level of rules that there's always going to be. So I normally just get happy when I go to LA and it's like a free fall.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Connor]

That's the way I like when I go to the UK and it's like, okay, like if we have like, like you know, if you go to a restaurant and you book a restaurant in the uk if you or America you.

[Chris Broad]

Have just a train platform. In the UK you can go anywhere on the platform. But in Japan there's always a white line. Often, you know, show you where to queue and things like that.

[Connor]

Yeah. Or like the restaurant you want to. You know, in America sometimes people be like, I want to bring my friend along. In Japan, it's like you can't just add it. You can't add a seat. You can't just add a seat. But it's like. And like having to explain that sometimes is frustrating. But then I like that when I go back it's like, oh, okay, cool. I don't have to worry about this rule. But I feel like we're just so used to it. Like we just know that, like it's what to expect. But it is, it is. You do get sometimes what wears you down. Like the hotel thing. That would, that would, I'd be like, man, come on, I just want to slimy swim. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Doug]

I kind of noticed that like in la I can punch the deer however much I want. But like here I'm doing it, everyone's looking at me like I'm crazy.

[Connor]

Well, you're just testing the constitution of the, of the deer. I think that's very bad.

[Doug]

That's what I thought I was. And I loudly explained in English and everyone's still mad.

[Connor]

I don't know.

[Aiden]

I was, I was wanting, wondering is there through the processes of, you know, whether it be finding a place to lease, to live in or for the, the bar or even the, the studio we're in or through any of the day to day life stuff that you have to do it. Is there a big gap between if you just had citizenship here versus your residency, like there it would be like way more clear cut and easy or something.

[Chris Broad]

I mean, well, when it comes to property, if you are not Japanese, it can be difficult sometimes renting certain places. I remember when I moved to Sendai after I finished teaching, I found like my dream apartment and it was all going really well. And then they went to the owner and they were like, no. I was like, why? And they're like, because it's not Japanese. And because, you know, I think landowners want peace of mind and they see foreigners as a fine rich leave. Yeah, yeah. Some of the, you know, it's not unfounded that something that can happen, but it is sort of a bit annoying. It's weird to not be able to get the thing you want because you're not Japanese in that case. But yes, that, that annoyed me early on when I moved to Sendai and then I found somewhere else. I don't know if you had the same Problem?

[Connor]

Yeah. I did find a really nice.

[Emily]

I didn't do this intentionally.

[Connor]

You become me.

[Emily]

I just.

[Chris Broad]

I looked to the right.

[Emily]

That was not planned.

[Doug]

That's so funny.

[Connor]

I swear you guys are in there.

[Doug]

I'm not even noticing anymore. And it's awesome.

[Chris Broad]

I don't look the same.

[Connor]

You know, this is such an anecdotal thing. And like, whether you get rejected for an apartment or not, and then there's so many reasons why you might or might or might not get rejected. And sometimes it is just like, yeah, because you're a foreigner. And I remember there was one apartment that I really looked at and I really wanted it. And the guy was like, okay, I'll just call the owner. And he was literally standing there next to me. He's calling him. He goes, hey. Hi, Gaigo, could you. This like, he's a foreigner.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah. You just know.

[Connor]

I could tell his face changed. And I was like, just tell me. Just rip the band aid off. But, you know, there are services here. There's like one of the biggest companies, like kencorp is a big real estate company here, and they have full English service that they can give to you. But the problem is that, like, you will get a list of buildings where they've gone to the owner beforehand and asked them, like, is it okay if we have a fauna here? But then like, sometimes they can get really weird about it and like, still, like. But it's okay, I guess, you know.

[Aiden]

More because most foreigners who are working here, I imagine, are in the situation where they're on some sort of work permit. Right. But if you look at somebody like American Pete, he's going to be. His intention is to get his citizenship, right?

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

And I understand that there might be some judgment, or you could call it like racism that exists maybe no matter what. But I'm kind of wondering for somebody like him, if he gets his citizenship. Are there doors that like magically open in making these processes, like, more easy, or would it not really change?

[Chris Broad]

I don't think so, actually. Because he's still technically a foreigner, right? Yeah.

[Connor]

And permanent residency is pretty all encompassing in Japan. It's pretty powerful, I think, like, you kind of just all the restrictions kind of waived.

[Chris Broad]

But I do wonder with what you just said, with the story where you were like, yeah. Would that be different if you were a permanent resident?

[Connor]

I would imagine. The only thing is they look at your name.

[Chris Broad]

Right?

[Connor]

Like, if you have a clearly foreign name.

[Chris Broad]

Right.

[Connor]

But I think if you were a citizen, you could definitely. I think you're allowed to adopt a like kanji name so you could like have your name on paper at least. Look Japanese. You could be like fucking tenacious. So you show up with a door.

[Doug]

They'Re pissed, but it's hard to sign.

[Connor]

But you never see the landlord. You never ever meet. You never meet your landlord in Japan.

[Chris Broad]

That's true.

[Connor]

I mean, most of the. Unless it's like a very like personal renting.

[Chris Broad]

Right.

[Connor]

Like at least in Tokyo. Right. You're never gonna meet your land landlord. So you probably could. Yeah.

[Doug]

If you.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Like I, I think, I think it doesn't change much. Right. Like, I think your day by day won't change if you're a citizen versus a permanent resident.

[Aiden]

I think.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

I don't think it's as much of an issue as it used to be anyway.

[Connor]

I think it's just you can, you can lose your permanent residency through I think either like committing crimes or not paying taxes, stuff like that.

[Chris Broad]

Loves committing crimes, which I do often.

[Connor]

Which I, I, I, that's the biggest.

[Doug]

Problem of yours, is always the crimes.

[Emily]

That's my, during your cyclophons, I've seen you on the sidewalk couple times.

[Chris Broad]

That's never happened.

[Emily]

There's actually dozens of hours of footage.

[Connor]

Of breaking that law. I've never done that.

[Doug]

Well, I kind of wanted to ask about that. The, you know, there's this, this narrative that there's been kind of a rising.

[Connor]

Agenda.

[Doug]

It's about this, the rising, like anti foreigner sentiment in Japan. And you guys are more on ground zero of seeing if anything is anything.

[Chris Broad]

Different than years ago or since Connor arrived here. It's gone up.

[Aiden]

Maybe that's why Doug's been getting so much heat here.

[Doug]

Yeah, no, I, obviously you guys, but I'm just, I'm wondering what. Or I don't think it's even found it. Maybe it's just a broader thing.

[Chris Broad]

It's found it. I mean, you know, there has been a noticeable rise in, in tourism. Right. You 10 years ago, I mean, 2008, I think there was about 8 million tourists. This year it's about 35, 40 million.

[Connor]

Oh my God.

[Chris Broad]

So if you go to Tokyo or Kyoto, you, you see the difference compared to then. Yeah, is really suffering from over tourism. A bits of Tokyo, but mostly Kyoto actually. So it's easy to walk around the camera show mass tourism and the problems and sort of go, oh, you know, it's a problem. And also there's been, you know, foreign streamers doing bad things. At some point two years ago, we had the infamous Johnny Somali dude, bellend, absolute bellend.

[Connor]

There's also crazy Japanese streamers as well that do this, of course, to explain.

[Chris Broad]

But it was, you know, it was all over the news every day for months around him, like breaking into lorries and doing all sorts of bad things. It was a national news story and I think that really didn't help. And periodically, when a streamer or something, an influencer does something wrong, it's often in the media. This year we had the girl who turned to Tori Gate into a fucking Jim Peak. Pulled up on her. It was a Ukrainian streamer who went to Fukushima, the exclusion zone, broke into a house and did a stream.

[Connor]

This happens a couple of times. A couple of people have done this.

[Chris Broad]

But of course we have to keep proportion is 35, 40 million tourists, of course, is going to be a crazy one. Oh, there's the Australian guy. Oh no. Who went up to a. When a gravesite you leave alcohol for your loved ones passed away and he went up and went, oh yeah, I drink it, man. Treated it like an all you could drink bar. You dick. So stupid. Yeah, I know it was.

[Doug]

I mean, it's this.

[Aiden]

Bad. Maybe the rules are good, like rules.

[Chris Broad]

So you have, you know, and there's definitely a rise in folks that don't like foreigners here in general. Right. As there's been a rise in the. Right in the us. Yeah. Uk. So it's sort of, you know, so these sort of videos are circulated. It's like rocket fuel for this sort of issue. So, yeah, I don't think it's any understatement to say that, but as you probably know, Dogan made a good video on it called on the Rise of Anti Foreign Sentiment. Right, right. And he talked about that because a lot of people see the rise of this San Sato party as being like, you know, the equivalent of Trump or reform in the uk, when actually it's. It's not just about anti foreigner sentiments, about the corruption of the incumbent LDP government and whatnot. Who did some silly things. Yeah.

[Connor]

A lot of sleep. I think people are just unhappy because shit's getting worse for people who, you know, everyday people who live here and work here. Right. Like, it's stuff's getting more expensive and nothing seems to be being done.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Connor]

So I think people are just frustrated. So I think they just want something new. Right. I don't think it often comes from like racist intentions or anything like that.

[Chris Broad]

No, no.

[Connor]

I think most people here, like. And if, like, even though you see the sentiment, it's like you Never really feel it.

[Doug]

Like, I haven't felt.

[Chris Broad]

I mean. Yeah, yeah.

[Connor]

No, People are very welcoming and very kind.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah. And you never hear. But you don't hear that story on the media as much. I mean, Connor and I were in Onomichi recently to do a cycle across the Inland Sea of Japan. We met a Japanese guy there, and we're like, you know, has there been a lot of foreign tourists here? And he was like, yeah, but it's really good. It's helped. The economy of the town is, like, booming because of it, which is kind of cool. And he was very. Seem to be very pleased about that. You don't hear that story told as much. The smaller towns and cities around Japan, they're benefiting. That are benefiting.

[Emily]

Because that's what I was going to ask is just like, at what point is it too much tourism? Right. Let's just say from a very callous economic perspective, like, it sounds like Kyoto is kind of hitting a limit where maybe the thing that makes it interesting and relevant and culturally unique is maybe suffering because of it. But, you know, in theory, it's like, what if. What if, you know, the Japanese government could press a button and get 100 million tourists next year? Would they press it?

[Aiden]

Well, they were trying to get 50.

[Chris Broad]

Million tourists by 20, 30.

[Connor]

I think it's an issue of they haven't found a good way of getting people to go all over Japan. Yeah, they're being funneled into Kyoto to Tokyo, Osaka. Right. Mostly. And I feel like there is. We've. We go all over and we, like, there's no tourists. The really cool places.

[Aiden]

I mean, Hokkaido with you was my favorite trip I've had here. 100%.

[Connor]

Yeah. That's still like, relatively kind of popular for skiing, but, like, no, everywhere else we went, we drove around. People don't want to drive in Japan. You kind of have to drive to go anywhere outside of, like, the really major aspect places. So I think, like, they've been trying to get people to go and to other places. Yeah, it's a hard time.

[Chris Broad]

I've always tried to show the more rural areas where I used to live. You know, Tohoku is the sort of northern bit of this main island of Honshi. It's six prefectures. That's really cool. And I think like 1 or 2% of foreign overseas tourists go there. It's a real shame because for me, it's the best bit.

[Connor]

You know, it's so easy to get around there because the bullet train at.

[Chris Broad]

Least, they just need to do A better job at pushing people these places, you know, that's kind of what you're.

[Emily]

Doing with your content.

[Chris Broad]

We try. Yeah, we try and do it.

[Connor]

Paris gets more tourists as a city than Japan in total.

[Chris Broad]

But the argument is often that Paris infrastructure.

[Connor]

Yeah, it's clearly like just an issue of like, like meeting demand and finding ways to.

[Chris Broad]

I think Kyoto will adapt though, and it'll be okay.

[Connor]

I think so.

[Chris Broad]

But you know, the really, it's been a major success story and I think that should be the focus of the narrative that all these overseas tourists have been really good for the economy of Japan because GDP or something like, yeah, the population. Japan's going down something like 900000 people a year, which is obviously going to hit the economy significantly. And having foreign tourists turn up, spend a few thousand dollars and then go home is great for the economy.

[Connor]

Also like half the TV shows are just foreigner experiencing thing in Japan. Half the TV shows explain that. What do you mean? Like, like. I mean one of the most popular ones is you are Nano. What's it called? You are nano.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah, what you do, it's just what you're doing.

[Connor]

They basically just wait at airport and then like. And when a foreigner comes through, they just point a camera and like, hey, what are you doing? And then they're like, he'll be like, I'm going to learn how to make sober. And they'll be like, can we just follow you?

[Chris Broad]

And they're like, yeah.

[Doug]

Because I assume 90% of tourists are doing very similar things.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Connor]

But they somehow always swim in the hotel pool.

[Aiden]

Like, whoa.

[Emily]

We're following that week long journey.

[Chris Broad]

Reading this sign out. I will not take my underwear off.

[Connor]

Or be like. It'll be like, what foreigners top 10 anime openings. And I'll just like ask foreigners on the street. Like it's so there's so many Foreigner TV shows. And I was like, we don't have this in the uk.

[Chris Broad]

We're probably doing it.

[Connor]

Yeah, this wouldn't work. But it's so popular in Japan. It's like a genre of TV like this.

[Chris Broad]

So many. Do you know what waggo soba is? It sounds racist. Waggo soba. It's like we eat like lots of little bowls of noodles. It's not a challenge. You have to eat like a hundred. They're like a little bowl like this. You have to sort of shot them. I did a video on it years ago and before it sort of. It took off and it's in this place called Morioka North Japan. Very remote. And on that show, a German guy turned up at Haneda and they interviewed him. Like, what are you doing? He's like, I've come to try some Anko soba noodles and. Cause I saw it on a broad 100 pound channel. And they followed him all the way up to Japan. It's just this German guy eating like buckets of needles. And it's quite entertaining. It's quite fun watching foreign folks turn up.

[Connor]

Some of them do some really cool things or like, odd things. Yeah, yeah, that's really, really fun.

[Doug]

Well, that sounds cool. That sounds like a positive.

[Connor]

No, it's great. It's always positive because they want to. Like, it's. I think Japanese people find it really fascinating to find how foreigners kind of interact with certain things.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah. And enjoy the culture.

[Connor]

Yeah, people, they love it when you appreciate Japanese culture.

[Doug]

I mean, it reminds me when we went to New Zealand and the guy that, that we met that showed us around, like, he loved his country and like, him seeing us experience, it was so fun for him. Like, he really enjoyed art.

[Aiden]

It was so cool.

[Chris Broad]

We saw that when Americans come to.

[Connor]

England and Wales, this is a beer.

[Chris Broad]

This is drinkable beer.

[Aiden]

In the vein of, like, these things being different than the narrative that is being perpetuated, is there any. Is there a positive shift in sentiment from people about people immigrating here? Like, is there. Is there more of an openness of like, people actually not just being tourists, but, like, settling down, moving here, becoming a part of the culture of Japan or. Because the story you often hear is that people aren't really for that. They might be happy with the tourism.

[Connor]

But I think they only. Only if you sort your trash properly. I think that's the only thing they care about. Like, I think they're pretty welcoming in general. Like, as long as you're just like, integrating.

[Chris Broad]

It's hard. Hard to know. I've never seen a study done independently outside of dubious posts on Twitter about people being angry. I don't know. I mean, I do know what people like about tourism is. Folks come, spend the money, go home. Immigration is a different kettle of fish, I suppose, because, I mean, this is.

[Aiden]

Just anecdotal, but, like, the difference of coming here for the first time, I think closer to 10 years ago versus coming now, even, like, primarily in Tokyo as well. Seen, like, way more. Presumably foreign workers at places like 7, 11. Oh, yeah. Stuff like that versus, like now. It's way more than the 10 years ago.

[Chris Broad]

100. Yeah. Yeah.

[Connor]

I think we obviously view this from a very Like, Western, like, Anglo perspective, where we, you know, you think, like, most of the foreigners are just white Americans who are, like. Right.

[Doug]

But that's not the group chat.

[Connor]

No, it's like. It's like, oh, we're very small proportion.

[Chris Broad]

It's like, I think Vietnamese.

[Connor]

I think America is like the tenth group of, like, foreigners here. Like, it's like, Yeah, I think it's like, yeah, it's us, too. I live the top, like, 25 countries that, like, emigrate here.

[Chris Broad]

He's the unacceptable face of Britain.

[Connor]

I'll take Wales.

[Chris Broad]

You know, it's mainly Vietnamese, Chinese, Taiwanese, South Korean. Yeah.

[Connor]

You know, so it's like, tiny, tiny group. So, like, from our perspective, it's like, you know, it's when we have this conversation, these podcasts in English, it's like, we can't talk at all for, like, how it is to be Vietnamese living here. Right. Or, like, Chinese. So it's, like, really hard to, like, talk on that aspect of it because I think there is also treated differently as well. Oh, we got stats. China, China, number one. Vietnam, number two, South Korea, number three, the Philippines. Brazil. Oh, yeah. Brazil is a huge history.

[Emily]

Nepal is above the UK and America.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Wow.

[Connor]

It's not even close as well. Yeah.

[Emily]

Nepal is a small country.

[Connor]

Like, if you go to an Indian restaurant here, it's like, nearly almost run by Nepalese.

[Chris Broad]

It is, yeah. Oh, interesting.

[Connor]

Yeah, it is interesting, but, you know, it's really. That's. Everyone's really chill. At least what I've interacted with.

[Doug]

I've never had a bad interaction, like most things.

[Chris Broad]

Right.

[Doug]

It's probably very divergent of people's reactions. There's some people who are extreme about it and others who are.

[Connor]

But I think sometimes people just don't talk to people as well. A lot of people just don't talk.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Connor]

So it's like. Yeah, if you're on Twitter, of course it looks bad.

[Doug]

Everything looks bad.

[Connor]

Everything looks bad on Twitter.

[Aiden]

Yeah. It's more exciting to post the headline of, like, people are racist and unaccepting and won't let anybody in. But it seems disconnected from the reality of just, like, what I'm looking at, you know?

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Doug]

I mean, okay, you guys will know better than me, but I do. I get the sense that even if that is true, there is some sort of, like, economic discontent in Japan that is causing.

[Connor]

Oh, for sure.

[Doug]

These different, like, outcroppings that may not be related or, like, they're not.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah, yeah. The cost of living is quite bad. It's got Worse.

[Connor]

I mean, it doesn't feel good when people just come to you, I imagine like Jamie, people like, oh great, this guy just buys everything and he bought everything.

[Chris Broad]

Or they're from the restaurant that I.

[Connor]

Go to or whatever. The hotel I used to love going to once a year for my vacation is now triple the price.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah, yeah. Japanese friends can't leave Japan because the currency. So we right now it's basically twice as expensive to go overseas.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Connor]

I think Hawaii has lost a lot of tourism because a lot of Japanese though. Because, you know, when I went into Hawaii, there's so many things that were in Japanese. I was like, what the heck? But yeah, apparently Hawaii tourism is down because it's just so ungodly expensive.

[Chris Broad]

I'm not sure what is driving the cost of living crisis though, per se.

[Connor]

Yeah. I'm not educated enough to know what's going on.

[Chris Broad]

Professor Connor. Yeah, I mean, it might be the Ukraine war driving up energy prices or something like that.

[Connor]

There was a rice always been low.

[Chris Broad]

Remember the rice shortage?

[Aiden]

I thought that was because the foreigners, they were eating.

[Connor]

Was it like NHK put that out or something, said that. I couldn't believe it.

[Chris Broad]

It's ridiculous.

[Connor]

They said like foreigners. There was like a video of like the NHK guy was like, foreigners enjoy Japanese rice.

[Chris Broad]

It was a dog with a shovel. Yeah.

[Connor]

He eats so much rice. I seen this guy, he's the, he's the problem.

[Emily]

And they thought like, they thought we were the same guys like that.

[Aiden]

I'm Conor.

[Emily]

He comes and eat dinner twice in one night at our restaurant.

[Chris Broad]

I want to.

[Emily]

TV crew watching you, you we brought up briefly. But what's one thing I wanted to talk to you guys about having actually, you know, worked with Japanese companies, made your own companies, is you hear a lot about the inefficiency of Japanese businesses. How there's just so much not, not only from you guys setting up a business, but like, you know, I've just, I've read anecdotes of like in a, in a company you have to move the stapler here and it doesn't matter if you, if, if it can be moved over there and it'd be really convenient. Everybody has to go through these processes that you're just told you have to do. You have to stay late and work super late hours even if you're not doing anything. It's a lot about optics of doing a lot. And then I don't know how much you can share. But we've talked about some of the. For example, I don't know, sponsor type stuff you've done recently when you work with Japanese companies as a content creator or voice actor that there's this huge amount of process that happens. So I'm curious like what your guys experiences with that if you come to Japan.

[Chris Broad]

Don't move the stapler. I'm going to let that.

[Emily]

This is a YouTube comment, but he was describing how when he was an expat who worked at a Japanese company and basically the just across the board there were all these ways that people would say, hey, we could run this office way more efficiently and from as little of a thing as the stapler to like how they send papers, how they do reports that they were just like, no, this is how you do it.

[Chris Broad]

We do it. There is a certain way of doing things that usually comes from the person at the top. And a lot of the reason why technological adoption was always a bit behind is older people running the companies are more sort of conservative and not necessarily open to new ideas. Which is why we have stereotypes like the fax machine, people using fax machines, which we still kind of do use a bit occasionally. In the property industry it's quite common to use facts still because it works. It's quite good, isn't it? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Doug]

Well, I heard the phrase, I mean, tell me if this is cliche or no, not true. But there was like, you know, in 1980, Japan was in the year 2000, they were ahead and now in 2020 they're still in the year 2000. Is there, is there some truth to that?

[Chris Broad]

Yes or no? Some truth.

[Connor]

Some truth.

[Chris Broad]

Okay.

[Connor]

Like most things.

[Chris Broad]

Some. I think, yeah. Paper. Using paper is a lot more commonpl than.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

You know, in the UK you could do a lot of stuff online documents. Whereas in Japan you have to go to the government office, your town hall and fill out a lot of documents and write. Fill out stuff three times. So that is that in that regard. Yes.

[Connor]

But they're trying to like get it. The ward office stuff. They're trying to get it more technological. It's not working and it's a lot.

[Chris Broad]

Because they tried to get rid of the stamps.

[Connor]

A lot people don't like it. They try to get rid of the. Especially older people do not want.

[Doug]

They're in a certain way.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Because like they, you know, like they, they reintroduced this thing called my number, which is like this thing that essentially it's like this card that kind of has all of your government information on one. And so whenever you go to the government building sounds convenient. That sounds, yeah. And like it is. I like it because I'm lazy somehow.

[Chris Broad]

I never got mine and now they won't give me one. And so I'm like signing off.

[Connor]

I had to go in person, like put like the secret PIN code for it and do all the stuff. And I had like a machine that like looked like a, like a voting machine. It was really weird. Everything was really odd. But. But then the whole concept was that like, for a couple of things you'd always have to go to the ward office to get like a tax residency proof, like proof that you were paying tax in Japan. And a lot of things would ask for this occasionally. So you had to, every time you wanted that you to go to the ward office, wait, wait for the thing and then just go to the person, they'll print it off and then there you go. But it's a whole process. And the idea behind this thing was that you can go to any convenience store printer and it has a My number scanner and then you can do it and then print it off, which I. Which I do it. I like it. But then other people complain that they don't want the government knowing their shit. They don't want everything linked, which is fair enough as well. Like, and especially old people because they're like, I got all the time in the world, bro.

[Chris Broad]

I don't.

[Connor]

I just don't want you having my shit like on one thing.

[Emily]

Support for this show comes from Quince.

[Aiden]

Okay, so Quint sponsored us before, gave us some really nice clothes and they're fantastic, affordable, fashionable, really like them. But my girlfriend was mad at me that we didn't get the bed sheets. I bought them recently. They're amazing.

[Emily]

Bed sheets. Have you ever been in a relationship? That's ridiculous. It's a massive fumble.

[Doug]

He said, we got the clothes from Quince, but I got one shirt and you took everything else home. You got all of the clothes from Quints. It just was one. One nice cashmere shirt for me.

[Aiden]

That's still we.

[Emily]

How are those bed sheets?

[Aiden]

They're amazing.

[Chris Broad]

So are the clothes.

[Emily]

Get your wardrobe sorted and your gift list handled with quints. Don't wait. Go to quints.com lemonade for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too.

[Aiden]

That's Q U I N C-E.com lemonade lemonade. Free shipping and 365 day returns.

[Emily]

Quits.com lemonade support for this show comes from Vanta. Every time before we record there's a 45 minute period where we have to calm down and ate him. We give him treats, we give him snacks, we let him watch his favorite YouTube videos and then we're able to.

[Aiden]

Actually do the podcast.

[Emily]

It is chaos.

[Doug]

It is absolute chaos.

[Emily]

It's not a good business strategy though. And Vanta can help you out there.

[Doug]

Get back.

[Emily]

It is an AI powered security expert that scales with your business that's gonna help you make sure your customers are happy and you avoid all of the shenanigans that happen from this chaotic third host that we have. You can get started at vanta.com lemonade.

[Doug]

That'S V A N-T-A.com lemonade thank you so much Aiden.

[Emily]

Too chaotic. Get out of here.

[Doug]

They do kind of sting.

[Emily]

Hey, good, you're back.

[Doug]

We can get ready to start.

[Connor]

Check.

[Aiden]

I'm ready. I'm ready. Support for this show comes from Anna. It comes from Anna. Tails is gone.

[Emily]

Let's do a podcast.

[Doug]

Let's change the world.

[Aiden]

We do it now. Support for this show comes from Rocket Money.

[Doug]

Little follow up for Aiden here. I found an actual conversation between me and Aiden from 2024. Two things. Number one, been watching a ton of your videos lately. Like even more than normal.

[Emily]

Well, not Twitch though, right?

[Doug]

Great stuff. Number two, hey, do you actually Heavy wreck Rocket Money? I've been skeptical lol. But I have a lot of monthly payments and it sounds very convenient. Does it still work if those monthly payments are spread across multiple things?

[Emily]

I would also like to know that.

[Doug]

And I said I used this actual message in an Adrienne just recorded now twice. Yeah, I f with it Heavy. I used it back before I even sponsored me when it was called True Bill. But I have lots of descriptions and it helps me keep track. Slash cancel. I legit have 20 to 25 new sub that I cycle through with the prices on.

[Aiden]

And that's why you should never waste your hard earned cash on an Atrioch twitch sub. Never pay for Adriock twitch subs again.

[Doug]

Unless you want it than usual. Give me $5.

[Aiden]

Try Rocket Money for [e-mail] lemonade so.

[Emily]

There'S maybe some cultural resistance to modernizing and changing all of this.

[Chris Broad]

Maybe I'd say Japan's built for sort of of efficiency though and things that work per se and you know the UK might be more technologically advanced in the way we do documents and things online, but then things break and don't work all the time in the uk.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

Want to make sure stuff bloody works and that is the most important thing, you know?

[Aiden]

Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

Over quick adoption of technology. That could go wrong, you know?

[Connor]

Yeah. I think they're very, very hesitant to. To add things or mix things up unless it's proven that it works, like you said.

[Chris Broad]

Can I.

[Doug]

I know we have the five white guy, Japanese expert pod going really well. I mean. But I actually did want to ask you guys a question about the uk. I don't know how often you go back.

[Chris Broad]

No.

[Connor]

Oh, God.

[Doug]

But we were talking to dinner about how there's this, like, bubble of the UK is doomed. YouTube videos.

[Aiden]

Every.

[Doug]

Every different channel has.

[Aiden]

It's gonna collapse in 30 days.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Doug]

It's like the UK is about to.

[Chris Broad]

Collapse in 30 days. Yeah. When I went over and said September and it was like, there's gonna be civil war. Yeah.

[Doug]

You see all that?

[Chris Broad]

It's like Elon Musk is always trying to incite something, like, the UK is coming to an end.

[Connor]

What a bellend.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah. And there was like a big, Like a big thing while I was there. The day before, I was in London where lots of folks, like, had a rally and Elon Musk gave a talk, being like, there's gonna be war. You gotta fight for what you believe in. He doesn't sound that good.

[Doug]

No, he sounds way more nasally than that.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah, it's. It's all a bit sinister, isn't it? But it's all bollocks. When I was there, I was like, oh, pretty normal.

[Emily]

That's what.

[Doug]

It feels very exaggerated.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Right.

[Doug]

Much like what your video described, where it's like, taking a few things out of context and.

[Connor]

But yeah, there's a lot of unhappiness. I think a lot of things that are wrong with the uk, But I think generally when you're there, it's like, as long as the pub's open, everyone's kind of okay.

[Doug]

There's difference between unhappiness and civil war.

[Connor]

We're quite far away from that.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah. There are a lot of influencers, influences that have sprung up all these countries. They go around countries and they sort of try and find problems and they're like, oh, my God, there's some rubbish on the floor. Western civilization's over, and it's just like, oh, off it gets a lot of.

[Connor]

I swear they're bots. I feel like so many of these counter bots.

[Doug]

That's what the Internet feels like lately. It's so insane.

[Connor]

If someone doesn't agree with me.

[Chris Broad]

I know. That's the thing.

[Doug]

That's why I don't want to call it out because it's like, I don't want to call someone a Bob or disagree, but man, it just feels like Reddit and social. I just see so many posts that I'm like, this is.

[Connor]

There's so many posts that like, catchy pop up. This is boom, like 500 likes instantly. And I'm like, that's just not normal.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah. Like there is something at play, definitely. And I see that in the us, the UK and Japan online. There is something going on there, I feel.

[Connor]

But it's like people, people like talk about Japan. It's like they've never been here. They may be coming for like a vacation one time and they've decided how Japan works. It's like, bro, what are you saying?

[Aiden]

Yeah, I think there's a general that. To go back to your video, the sentiment that you're talking about at the end of that video where there's a lot of animosity on the Internet and it feels like we're kind of in this weird spiral of making increasingly intentionally negative content that gets people riled up. And more people seem to be engaging with that in the recent year.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah, it's so easy to make people angry about things they never knew about until they saw that video.

[Aiden]

But I think the theme across all of these places is I think there is a shared experience of economic strife pretty much everywhere of my life feels like it's not going in a great direction. I'm struggling and I'm just generally in a bad place. So I'm more likely to snap and say something negative. Latch onto something negative.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

And play into whatever negative narrative might be playing about someplace.

[Chris Broad]

And I feel like a lot of people are being taken advantage of without realizing it by sort of being subtly manipulated to the right for that reason. Right.

[Aiden]

Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

It's like, we've got to find someone to blame. That economy is fucked.

[Aiden]

Molding your unhappiness in a certain direction.

[Chris Broad]

Who'S the easiest target, you know, in all those countries? Who can we call out as being the main reason we were laughing?

[Aiden]

We were laughing about how, you know, one of the things that has come up recently is that this, you know, blaming some problems in Japanese politics on foreigners and the idea of issues in Japan being substantially blamed on foreigners when you have like effectively so few foreign born people living in the country.

[Chris Broad]

Exactly. It can happen. Yeah.

[Aiden]

And I was like, this is. It's truly a timeless strat. Like, it doesn't. It shows that no matter how few immigrants you have, you still can blame Them.

[Chris Broad]

Exactly.

[Emily]

The meta can change, but it always works. This one Strat has like consistently worked.

[Aiden]

Because in my head, right in the US it's like, oh, Patrick, I guess, like I get. But surely, surely, like you couldn't use this. Like, if we had 20% less immigrants, you couldn't still be saying that. And Japan's like, let me show you.

[Chris Broad]

Absolutely. But no, when I dig into this rage bait across the board, across all these channels, it does feel like there's some sort of subtle way of trying to nudge people over to the right politically.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

They find someone, something to be angry at that they didn't know existed.

[Doug]

It's a good word for it because it does not just in serious political subject. It's in game. It's every. Every aspect.

[Chris Broad]

It doesn't have to be political ends. It's just you can make money by pissing people off.

[Doug]

I think that's the truth of it.

[Connor]

Yeah. The fact that Twitter gives you ad revenue is the single greatest mistake of all of this. Yeah. It should never have been incentivized. You get money to have opinions.

[Doug]

That's the most controversial most.

[Connor]

If you have the most interactable opinion, you get paid the most. It's insane.

[Aiden]

It is kind of like being able to post. Like you can now experience like pull from 4chan, but with monetization for.

[Connor]

It's crazy. It's fucked up.

[Aiden]

Like, I can make. I can make a rack on my post about how like the Jews are ruining America. And that's like, that's fine on the platform now.

[Emily]

Well, why do you guys feel that's. That's, you know, we're all YouTubers of sorts. Why do you guys feel YouTube is different? Same in sinister.

[Connor]

Right.

[Chris Broad]

I mean, that's the point in terms of. That doesn't exist.

[Emily]

I just mean, like you're mentioning, you know, that on. On Twitter, it's like this was this terrible decision to. But the same.

[Chris Broad]

Twitter is mostly bots, though.

[Connor]

I think it's a lot harder to.

[Chris Broad]

Make someone like a bot YouTube video as easily at the moment.

[Connor]

Yeah. I feel like you have to put so much of your personality on there and that's why you have to be so willing to like, be that person that I think is tough. And also you just demand more time and attention, which is tough with YouTube. You mean for YouTube? For YouTube, yeah.

[Emily]

You get more money. I don't know.

[Connor]

That's why, like, we do have a lot of problem. Successful.

[Emily]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Yeah. I mean, it happens, but I would say less, a lesser extent, because you can't just be a faceless person.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Connor]

From a bot that's like.

[Doug]

On Twitter. I feel like you can't reasonably make money making reasonable content. Reasonable. But you can on it. I don't know why it's different because it's both monitors.

[Connor]

Click. Read more on Twitter. Bro. Get the.

[Chris Broad]

It's over.

[Connor]

It's like you can, yeah.

[Doug]

Like you guys, I mean, you guys are making great, compelling, like reasonable, nice content and you can make a lot of money with that. So I don't, I think, I think.

[Aiden]

It'S because you need trust and a platform to be able to do that though. Like, the reason that I clicked on your video is because I have an understanding of you and your content and the consistency of it.

[Chris Broad]

Right.

[Aiden]

So I'm, I'm interest. Even though your, your, your take is combating a very angry narrative at its core. Right. And you're basically taking a pretty mellowed out approach to like, this shit's just not that crazy. And that's kind of the core message. Right. But if I'm a person who doesn't have trust and a following behind that, I'm less likely to engage with it.

[Chris Broad]

Absolutely. Well, that's what scares me the most as well though, as a. You know, I've got a few million people that follow me about Japan and over the last decade I've built up a sense of trust and community of people that sort of learn about Japan through my content. And that gives me an. A massive amount of responsibility and power almost and how I shape opinions about Japan. Yeah, I. It's quite a level of responsibility almost to a not so fun degree. People analyze what I say and think. Imagine if I went out round, you know, Shinjuku and I went, oh, Japan's guys, it's so bad. And I curated a series of images.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

I could manipulate millions and create this image of Japan that doesn't fundamentally exist because of that position. Right. And sure, some people get a 1 out of 10 YouTube videos. I'm sure, you know, sure. Some people be like Chris May, you know, Kabuki Cho. Shojuku is not illustrative of Japan.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

Most people might not have been Japan. They won't know that. They trust a reliable source. I, you know, and so how I present Japan is extremely. I have a burden of responsibility in how I project and present the country. You know, and when I called out the video that I did, I felt that was fundamentally not reality. What I was seeing specialists, that the content in question was literally on a road. I walked down several times a week. But I think, yeah, I think it is a burden, responsibility on all creators to call out things they see that they believe to be fundamentally wrong. Otherwise the bad guys win because nobody's combating it. Right?

[Aiden]

Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

The whole fucking platform's being flooded with sewage. We have to combat that, we have to come up against it. Otherwise it's tough.

[Doug]

I think of that sometimes because you.

[Chris Broad]

Don'T want to get involved in drama and shit.

[Doug]

You don't want to get involved with drama. And then also it's like, like on some base level it's, it's what they want because it adds attention, you know, it gives them attention.

[Chris Broad]

And I had that conundrum when I made my video. A lot of friends were like, don't do it. And I was like, really at war with myself. But then I was like, it's important, I have to. No, I thought it was crazy in this subject. I have to do it. But yeah, I, you know, I don't like drama. It's horrible having to get, you know, waddle through all that. Of course you get confused.

[Connor]

A pissing contest sometimes as well, which is also a frustrating effort aspect of it.

[Chris Broad]

I know when I made my video on that subject and this is a video called what's happening to Japan? Right. And I, I, I showed my friends the script and many of them were like, don't do this or whatever. But then when I, when I made the video and I showed them, they're like, actually this is quite good, you've made your point. But yeah, I think it's important to combat things like that we see online. Fundamentally wrong.

[Connor]

Yeah, you never want to look petty.

[Doug]

No, yeah, I thought, I thought it was broader message.

[Chris Broad]

It was extract all the humor from it essentially going quite seriously. But yeah, there's a lot of shit online, isn't there?

[Connor]

There's a lot of shit.

[Aiden]

Can I ask you guys about a specific genre that I've been seeing proliferate on YouTube?

[Chris Broad]

Oh, gosh.

[Aiden]

About Japan.

[Chris Broad]

Exciting.

[Aiden]

So this is, I don't know if this is just my algo or if this is actually new, but I've seen a wave of shorts and long form videos that are from the usually first person POV of like salaryman working in Tokyo or like young woman working in Tokyo. And it's them going through their day over and over, usually with like full English subtitles and mostly with a tone of like, this is how harsh and like draining life is in Japan. Yeah, I've seen some of. And I've seen a Ton of these channels.

[Connor]

You know, I saw one of them and I thought something fishy about it. Yeah, I saw one where his commute. Cause I recognized where he was going. I was like, this is the weirdest commute. It was like a commute, commute from like literally the center to the outside of Tokyo. And I was like, why would you, why would you pay rent to live the center? To commute out where it's presumably cheaper. And it was like an hour and a half commute.

[Chris Broad]

That's the job.

[Doug]

He wanted to go to the bar.

[Connor]

It was like, it wouldn't show you. It was like, do you know the one I'm talking about?

[Aiden]

I have an idea of what you're saying. Because I had this exact creeping feeling of this. Something feels off about this content. It's. It's something to do with like the presentation and the, the, the like choice of English words. All of these channels, like, there's something that feels sinister about this. Like they're not presenting an actual honest view of. I don't.

[Connor]

Part of me does not believe this is actually. It was like an AI thumbnail had like 10 million views. And then like it was just Studio Ghibli.

[Emily]

AI generator.

[Connor]

Studio Ghibli.

[Chris Broad]

But it's.

[Emily]

No, it's not just one. There's a lot now.

[Doug]

I mean, that's crazy.

[Chris Broad]

There are people out there who've worked out how you can print money on YouTube by gaming algorithms and getting people to click on certain topics.

[Connor]

Like, I don't, I don't think like, like, I'm not saying that this person isn't working the show, whatever. But all I was, all I was thinking was watching. I was like, this is a bit odd. Like everything they were doing, they would have been say, okay, it was just like that. They were kind of going over the commute and then they went to.

[Chris Broad]

Did you ever see their face?

[Connor]

No, no, you don't see their face. But then they go to a Shinigao station, which is quite a famous looking station for looking. It's the one with the giant, big crowds of people. It's got a giant hall. I think it's Shinagawa station. Yeah, they've got this very iconic looking thing and it's a massive commuter area because it's one of the biggest stations. Got a bullet train attached to it. And so yeah, it does look kind of crazy when you see this station because this is the like a very famous like spot where. I mean that's like, it's, it's full.

[Doug]

I haven't seen these videos, but I don't understand how this is sinister. It sounds like a guy can use.

[Aiden]

Sinister is the wrong maybe, maybe insidious. I don't, I don't even understand. I mean tricked. It feels like I'm not being presented a real person's commute of Japan. It feels like they understand the algorithmic appeal of this content and have edited together a bunch of clips of somebody walking through Japan and are creating a fake sob story about how their job is.

[Chris Broad]

Yes.

[Aiden]

And then putting that on YouTube. And there are some of these channels, like there's one or two where the guy making the videos actually shows himself. He also happens to be the person in this group of channels I've watched that has like the most reasonable day. And all the people that say they're working 15 hour days, seven days a week and have the shittiest commute all never show themselves.

[Doug]

So it's probably a real person had a nine hour day or whatever and then someone started copying into making a fake.

[Connor]

10, 11, 12, 14.

[Aiden]

I've just been, been seeing a lot of these channels and they all have weird names and like branding for their channels and I, I just. So I wanted to know if you guys were on the beat of like how real.

[Chris Broad]

I've seen a few. Yeah, I've seen a few. I just don't think are real people.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

And they're making content. They probably made one video, it took off and they keep going. Yeah. But yeah, I think, I don't. I probably. There probably is channels out there like that that have sussed you can make good views through doing that. I could do it if I had to. I go out, make a. A channel like that, not show my face like a curate. The sort of day designed to, you know, evoke emotions and get people clicking and tell a story.

[Emily]

It's weird that people want to hear that foreigners are bad and Japan's being ruined, but also that being a Japanese person is bad and shitty.

[Chris Broad]

How do we know the Japanese?

[Emily]

I guess it's true.

[Chris Broad]

I could present such a video without showing my face.

[Emily]

Yeah, you're right.

[Chris Broad]

Rent out an apartment in Tokyo for, you know, four or five. Yeah.

[Emily]

Here's my time. The thing that's strange to me about this genre cause I've only seen a couple of them, but it never shows or talks about the details of the job. It's. Here is I wake up and here's my commute. It's so long. Here's okay, skip ahead. We're at lunch. Look at how shitty My lunch is skip ahead, I'm at home. Oh, this was the longest day ever. And so there's no substance about what their life is. It's essentially my commute blow.

[Doug]

So strange.

[Emily]

And my hours blows.

[Chris Broad]

You could do that anyhow.

[Doug]

You could do that in Los Angeles.

[Connor]

That's the thing. It would be so sad if you.

[Aiden]

Me saying it's my commute and I walk through skid row every day.

[Chris Broad]

Like just get on a bus traffic.

[Doug]

Watching these videos to feel better about myself.

[Chris Broad]

What do you even call that kind of content, though? Reality bait, you know.

[Connor]

But then like, it's commute bait. But working in Japan is bad. So it's weird to kind of. Yeah, it's all just.

[Chris Broad]

It's not weird though, is it? You could make money from doing it.

[Connor]

Yeah, true.

[Chris Broad]

It's really easy. And that's all there. Once you monetize a platform, you can do anything to get away with it.

[Aiden]

You know, I did want to ask you because I know you have experience working in a more traditional company. Japanese company structure.

[Connor]

McDonald's.

[Chris Broad]

The best.

[Connor]

I used to work McDonald's.

[Doug]

Did you really?

[Connor]

Yeah, I was like 16.

[Chris Broad]

The burgers never tasted.

[Doug]

So get the new chart.

[Connor]

I saw gambling on Stream.

[Aiden]

I used to work at Dairy Queen.

[Connor]

Oh, hell yeah. We've been in the trenches.

[Aiden]

But in working with the. I think it was the first agency you worked at or.

[Connor]

Yeah, so I'm very lucky. I just kind of came over with an agency as it was formed. Maylene, who is an American who's been living a long time in Japan working in a Japanese company. She kind of pitched an idea to start a town agency to Kadokawa, really big subsidiary. And they were like, okay. And we had done some sponsorships for another branch of the company that did digital market for foreigners. So that's how we kind of got in. So me, Gant and Joey came over.

[Emily]

Wait, so sorry, you. This was starting. So you were in the uk?

[Connor]

In the uk. Me Gaunt were in the UK and Joey was in Japan at the time because Joey's Japanese.

[Doug]

Did this show start in the uk?

[Connor]

No, we all moved over in the uk.

[Emily]

Is it voice acting work that you start doing with them or is it more content creating YouTube?

[Connor]

YouTube. I was promoting the digital manga on my. My YouTube platform. And then that was how they were like, oh, you should come on over. So Maylene brought us over. At the time it was just all new because I think also it's still like the. All the visa laws and everything. I haven't really considered youtubing as a job yet because they're so old. So it was all like what do we do? What visa do you come over on and all that stuff. So we kind of just went through that process and I mean the geeks plus as a company Maylene started it and so it was just Maylene, us three and one other HR staff person. That was it.

[Emily]

And this was like 2019. 2019.

[Connor]

2019. Yeah. So mailing like really built it all up just before and now it's like a bigger company. I don't know how many employees geeks has now but quite a lot.

[Aiden]

I mean from stories that you've shared the thing you have some experience with the quirks of doing business within a traditional Japanese company because of this like little like traditions that people wouldn't expect. Not necessarily bad things, just like funny things interacting through that company like whether it be a company party or.

[Connor]

Yeah, company parties were fun. I like those though. Those are hype. But then they stopped doing them after Covid.

[Doug]

Wait, really?

[Connor]

Kinda. I feel like in Japan in general they've kind of stopped Nomikais.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah. I think their drinking after work culture sort of tapered off a bit after Covid.

[Connor]

That changed.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah but people don't like drinking as much in general in Japan.

[Connor]

Yeah, young people don't drink as much in Japan.

[Chris Broad]

Well that's.

[Doug]

That's America too.

[Connor]

Well that was like when they had that big news story when they were like. Like they were trying to do ads to get young people drink alcohol cuz the alcohol sales were down and then.

[Chris Broad]

Government enjoy alcohol and like trying to encourage people.

[Connor]

The government encouraged people. You guys should drink beer. It's fine.

[Chris Broad]

Stimulate business.

[Doug]

I just saw the CEO of Heineken at same problem. He came out and said he was like trying to pitch Gen Z on drinking. He's like it'll make you more social, you'll have more friends like.

[Connor]

You know.

[Doug]

We had a great night drinking bro.

[Connor]

I was tired.

[Doug]

I was like listen, you may not wrong.

[Connor]

Yeah I saw that. I saw this articles and stuff about people who drink more get more opportunities or something.

[Doug]

I don't know how they're really pushing it.

[Connor]

That's so funny. I think I've been trying to really like push that lately.

[Doug]

I think it'll bounce back the way that like smoking was almost dead. I think Gen Alpha is going to be drunks bro. They're going to drink like greatest gen. They're going to drink more sort of.

[Emily]

New like distilled easy to drink format like a vape apple Juice with.

[Doug]

Yeah, I think.

[Connor]

Yeah. I mean, but like, overall, like, I had to do a lot of like, like forms and I had to clock in and clock out and stuff like that as a YouTuber.

[Chris Broad]

Really?

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Clock in with a form for YouTubing.

[Connor]

I had to clock in for visa requirements. I'd clock in.

[Doug]

You make your commute video. It's like you waking up at 4pm.

[Chris Broad]

And.

[Doug]

Rolling out of bed.

[Connor]

It was, it was like we had a better system for doing it luckily, but it was. Yeah, it was. And then now we don't have to do it as much and it depends. It's all been shifted now so we found a better way. But it was all new. Right. So like everything was just so. That's interesting. And so like it was all at the, at that time, YouTubing and coming up for Japan to do YouTubing was very new and Chris was like a rare occurrence. Someone who'd been doing before.

[Doug]

He's watching this.

[Connor]

Yeah, mine's watching. But like you've been doing it like through a more traditional avenue and doing it differently. But it's. Yeah, I mean, but that. Yeah. And then the company parties are cool.

[Chris Broad]

You would do Kagami Biraki.

[Connor]

What's Kagami Birki?

[Chris Broad]

It's like the turning of the mirror and it's like at the start of the new year, you get like a barrel of like sake and you smash it.

[Connor]

We didn't do that. We didn't do that. But I'm sure maybe the school.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah, it's kind of cool. It's like, you know, start the year by breaking this barrel of like sake.

[Connor]

You'll see these like little rope looking barrel things.

[Doug]

Do you break at the beginning?

[Chris Broad]

One, two, three, bang. And I did it with me a new teacher that I worked with and the school principal. And I did it so hard, it like exploded all over the principle. It was like a Mario level. Bang. Like the barrel of sucker.

[Connor]

It was like my second week into being in Japan. I. I mayline was like, oh, you got to come to this company event. I was like, oh, okay, cool. So I went there and it was a giant concert hall that the whole company had rented out and there's tables and then I got put with like five Japanese people from a different company that I. I didn't know anything this time. I didn't speak any Japanese. And it was like for the next two hours, you guys have to build a, like a car and a ramp and whoever can build the longest wings.

[Chris Broad]

That's kind of cool. Did Your engineering degree pay off?

[Aiden]

Yeah.

[Connor]

And then they were all, like, sitting there and they were all like, like, making this thing. And I was like, oh, by the way, I had, like, an hour. And I was like, oh, engineering degree. They were like, what? Why didn't you say something?

[Aiden]

You've been silent for an hour.

[Connor]

You thought you were mute. Then I tried to do something. It didn't even work.

[Doug]

So I was like.

[Connor]

They were like, this guy, Foreigners are.

[Emily]

Coming here, ruing our engineering.

[Connor]

But then they would be like, afterwards, they would, like, rent out a giant ferry, and you'd just drink on the ferry. It was, like, crazy. It was really fun, though. That sounds fun.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Connor]

And then you would have these fairy.

[Chris Broad]

And I got a barrel.

[Connor]

But it was like a giant conglomerate that has a. It's really, really cool, though. It was really fun. And it was like. To me, when I was like, what was I, 23? I was like, this is so sick. And I got to, like, speak to Japanese people all the time. And it was very cool because I was, like, trying to practice. It was really fun. It was exciting. There was, like. I didn't see a lot of the downsides, luckily, because I didn't have to work, like, crazy hours either. I just did that voluntarily because I was a YouTuber. I was like, I'll just.

[Emily]

I.

[Chris Broad]

Work parties in Japan are really trippy because people get drunk and they speak their minds. In Japan, you know, was it hone, hone, hone? Like, you have, like, a public stance and a private stance. And at work, people always have this guard up and they never speak their mind. And then at the party, they'll drink one beer and they'll be like, I fucking hate Takeshi San. Literally, you know, it was really. Teachers would come up to me and tell me, like, insane things.

[Connor]

It was so fun. But then, like, I would mostly interact with these guys through parties. And you probably did two. Maybe not teachers, but mind parties. And then I'd see them in the office, and they were, like, so cold. They pretended like you would tell me.

[Aiden]

I think you told me, like, some party or get together, you'll have a situation where maybe somebody gets too drunk, and they'll kind of do something that is kind of over the line or embarrass themselves. And then everybody shows up to work the next day and just collectively agrees.

[Chris Broad]

To not talk about it.

[Aiden]

And then everybody just moves on.

[Chris Broad]

Work party. And, like, three guys just went completely naked and ran around going. And then eight hours later, we're in the office. They were like, on the Laptop.

[Connor]

Yeah. It's like, it's like the agreement in.

[Chris Broad]

The uk you'd be like, how fun would it last? Like in Japan they're like, nothing.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Connor]

What happens in the party you can't. You're not allowed to talk about during a while.

[Chris Broad]

Interesting dynamic. It was quite.

[Connor]

If you work like 12 hours a day, you want to at least like get drunk and not. Not be worried about what you just.

[Chris Broad]

No, no, no.

[Doug]

But it is funny that you would, like, you could make friends with someone.

[Aiden]

Yeah.

[Doug]

Only in that moment and it's like a different person.

[Chris Broad]

It genuinely tripped me out. The first year or so. It was hard to wrap my head around because then at work you're like, can we talk about. Yeah, we. Yeah. Naked running around like a. You know, and we couldn't. It was really weird. That's interesting.

[Connor]

Yeah. It's funny how it works, but you get used to it. Like everything in Japan, you just get used to it.

[Chris Broad]

It.

[Connor]

It becomes the norm.

[Aiden]

Well, I, I think maybe a theme of this episode right now is maybe more. More so criticisms than. Than praise. But it's nice to hear like good things.

[Connor]

Japan's awesome. I mean, that's why we live here.

[Doug]

Stay here if you didn't love it.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

But after living here for so long and having companies here and you know, hiring people doing. Doing all these different things, what are, I don't know, some other standout or favorite things about being here. Like what are, what are the best things in your guys's mind?

[Connor]

I mean, quality of life here is just so high.

[Chris Broad]

Oh yeah. And I mean, just being a walk around at night, not to ever look over your shoulder, you know, I think, yeah, safety. We. I think that's something you take for granted. I was talking to a Japanese friend the other day that went to the UK and got like robbed eight seconds after arriving at Heathrow Airport. And so for God's sake, you can't.

[Connor]

Have your phone out like in the street.

[Chris Broad]

A good friend of mine is going to Japan, going to the UK soon. I had to sort of be like, be careful at like Westminster Bridge and don't leave your bags down. Yeah.

[Doug]

I mean, Pete was telling us his wife got robbed by the.

[Chris Broad]

Piece wise. £4,000 or whatever.

[Doug]

That's crazy.

[Chris Broad]

So you gotta keep. Yeah, that's something like you can walk through the deepest, darkest stretches of Shinjuku and Kabukichore and it's like, oh, it's safe, it's fine. As long as you don't follow the street touts into a random Bar.

[Connor]

Yeah. Just don't follow the tout.

[Chris Broad]

But other than that, it's fine.

[Aiden]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Like everyone's really nice and you know, sometimes people complain that people are like fake nice and just putting on, you know, but a lot of the times people are just generally really nice and welcoming. I've seldom had bad experiences here or conversations people, it's always really friendly. People are so excited that you speak Japanese always.

[Chris Broad]

There's just a sense of harmony across the country. I've never seen people shouting or fighting publicly or anything like that. There's just a nice sense of harmony around the country. There is definitely utopian qualities to Japan that the world would.

[Connor]

Yeah. I think people think Japan, right. Is a big meme. And I think people are also pushing back against that online a lot now. They're trying to find bad things, things about Japan so they feel like more reality. Yeah, like there, there certainly are bad things. It's, it's a country.

[Aiden]

It just feels like getting a pool man about it.

[Connor]

But it's also like a amazing country. Like it's really cool. Like it's such an amazing place. Like, I think I, I feel very lucky that I'm allowed to, you know, live here and 100% contribute.

[Aiden]

Hopefully for your content, you've, you know, you do a really good job of, of showing interesting cool things all over the country. Have you thought about what that looks like 10 years from now? Is it eventually going maybe like you could spend another 10, 15 years in a different country and do the same thing all over again with a bunch of new possibilities? Or do you think it's Japan for the rest of your life?

[Chris Broad]

I don't know. I'm still not bored of traveling Japan, making videos. I've been to every single prefecture in Japan, the equivalent of going to every state I spent. Although suppose every state in America is like the size of Japan, so maybe not. But, you know, and I've still wanted everyone. There's still so many fascinating stories to be told and people to meet.

[Aiden]

I don't know.

[Chris Broad]

I don't know if I would do another country. I think because I've been here 12 years, I sort of have a. Is like my specialty. Right. If I went to Brazil, I wouldn't. I'd need years to accrue that cultural knowledge before I could make a video on it. I, I and feel comfortable about that. So I don't know, I think I'd probably, maybe next year get more of a balance between Japan content and doing more, I don't know, commentary stuff or More humor stuff or commentary stuff.

[Connor]

We did some UK videos as well.

[Chris Broad]

And we've been to uk. I'm sure Conor, I'll do some more stuff in the uk. We talked about doing some stuff in Europe. Maybe.

[Aiden]

Maybe it'd be an exciting video you can make when like Wales finally builds a road.

[Connor]

I'll be there for the opening, bro.

[Doug]

I'll cut the river.

[Chris Broad]

I rode the first road in Wales.

[Emily]

So Chris, I think for you it's very interesting that you did the bar route and then you also have another business, right. That's been nine months in or something like that.

[Chris Broad]

I mean I had two years ago I had a book come out which I spent a lot of time bloody writing and that did really well and became like the best selling book in England for like a few weeks.

[Emily]

Oh, nice.

[Chris Broad]

Blew my mind. What was the book? I just called it Broad in Japan. It was an original title that's like my book.

[Connor]

We just used the title of the channel.

[Doug]

You guys are both authors.

[Emily]

So as a. As somebody who you know has been doing YouTube for what, seven years full time now, I think it's interesting to see more and more, let's say content creators expanding to other businesses that are often like more physical or more traditional thing or our best friend, you know, there's. We know a guy who makes. Makes chocolate now. But then for you know, for example, you making the bar I think is a really interesting way to like leverage this online space. Space. But a lot of people just want to play video games forever. And so I'm curious like how you see your future.

[Chris Broad]

I mean there's lots of. You can be quite cynical and be like, oh, you started the bar for money. I just don't think. I don't even made a profit from it yet.

[Emily]

Profitable it is to go try to make it to run a bar.

[Chris Broad]

Genuinely like with the bar I could all the, you know, the year of preparation and planning and everything. If I just made videos I would have made a lot more money.

[Doug]

I would make so much more money.

[Chris Broad]

If we didn't do this. And I think that's the thing annoys me whenever I do something people like cynical. He's doing it for the money, you know, or to write a book. Took a year to write the book. I love writing it. At no point did I think this is about money. Yes, I had to do it from a place of experience and passion and took a year. And it's not easy writing a book and with the.

[Emily]

Speak for yourself.

[Connor]

My book was quite easy.

[Doug]

He's A natural.

[Chris Broad]

You wrote a fucking ghostwriter.

[Connor]

Yeah, you're the ghostwriter.

[Chris Broad]

She's a ghostwriter, innit?

[Emily]

Wait, what?

[Connor]

You're the ghostwriter for yours, right?

[Emily]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Chris Broad]

But there was a lot of influencers that use ghostwriters and I was like, why would you do that? Oh, it's for money. If you can't sit down and write your own book, maybe don't bother, go and do something else.

[Emily]

I mean, that's why I think it's so interesting is like, you know, as much as it might sound silly to somebody who doesn't do this job, it's actually. It's pretty hard. And there's a lot of skills we have to develop and build and do.

[Chris Broad]

And I think it's the challenge, isn't it? It's the personal growth and the experience of getting to deal with these things.

[Emily]

Yeah, yeah.

[Chris Broad]

I look back and I go, ah, the bar. Probably sh. Two years off my life due to the stress of it all. But it's been really cool meeting viewers and the experience of starting a new business and seeing how. What it takes to run a bar on the operation side of things, on a purely educational level, it's been quite fascinating.

[Emily]

Do you think you would do more stuff, whether it's more physical places or, you know, I don't know, like a bigger documentary or film or something? Do you see yourself definitely expanding beyond the.

[Chris Broad]

I think that's actually a problem, though. I think think too many influencers expand and do too much and dilute their brand. You know, I remember when I had a meeting with Mr. Beast manager years ago and they were trying to bring me on their company. It was like Night Media, I think it was called. Yeah. And it was like, trying to get me to do, like, what do you want to do, bro? And I'm like, oh, documentary or film? He's like, yeah, you want to be like Mr. Beast? I was like, oh, really? No. He's like, we could help you with that. I want to make a film.

[Connor]

Oh, like Mr.

[Chris Broad]

Beast, famous for films, tell a bit.

[Aiden]

Like, see the Abroad in Japan theme park in Riad.

[Chris Broad]

It's going to be amazing.

[Emily]

Okay, I will say, though, abroad and Riyadh.

[Connor]

That's a good sound. That's a good sound.

[Aiden]

Abroad and Riyadh, you come to the bar, no alcohol.

[Chris Broad]

You get to a journalist.

[Doug]

It's a recreation of the bar.

[Chris Broad]

Oh, God.

[Doug]

Little prefectures in Japan recreate. You get to walk through them.

[Chris Broad]

But yeah, I mean, that meeting, it was very cynical for me. It was like. Like at no point was like, you know, the passion side of things telling a story was more like, how can we make money? And I get that that's, you know, important, that money's important to some organizations. But yeah, I do it because it's like an experience and it's fun and it's exciting, you know, or it's a problem that's being challenged. Like the EIM company we set up, an ESIM company took like a year to sort all that out. It was really long and stressful. And that came from like numerous friends, just didn't know what ESIM to use or ESIM when they came to Japan. I had a friend who I hung out with and his phone was broken and rubbish. And then my family came and they're like, what should I use? I don't know. And I thought, well, this is clearly a problem. If you've got these companies and nobody knows which one's good, let's try and make one that's good. And that's where that came from.

[Aiden]

In business.

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[Aiden]

When you're running that. I was curious with that business or the bar, are you guys hiring Japanese employees?

[Chris Broad]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We only have one rule. They must be British. Just as an example.

[Aiden]

Right. Like my space experiences coming here mostly working with you guys and then you.

[Chris Broad]

Know, he hires people from Wales.

[Aiden]

And Kai's over there. Kai's from Australia. Am I doxxing you, Kai?

[Chris Broad]

I'm sorry.

[Doug]

And his address is. And his greatest fears are.

[Chris Broad]

But.

[Aiden]

And. And this, you know, maybe that makes sense for this sort of like content environment. But I was curious what your guys experience is like hiring people.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah, I like to get a balance. I think for the E SIM company there's like three Japanese people and two American guys and yeah, so it's, it's a bit of a balance with the bar. I think it's about half and half as well. But yeah, no, it's really cool hiring Japanese people. Locals did a documentary last year and that was all a Japanese crew. So mostly so yeah, no, absolutely. There's no like I don't kind of look at.

[Aiden]

Yeah, I think not intentionally dividing it or excluding it. I was just curious if that you had.

[Chris Broad]

No, no, not at all. But you know hire people that, that you think are going to be good is the number one rule. I'd say people that are good at their field.

[Emily]

It's also so interesting what you mentioned about the Mr. Beast company who also reached out to me but I think they blast out to a lot of creators but I think they're one of many folks for Whom they talk to, people like us who have this degree of success and could leverage that for something more. And they go into the conversation with the assumption of, you should make this as big as possible. Even setting aside money. Setting aside the money. It just should be big. Bigger. Like, why aren't you. You could do this big a business. So that's why I'm actually. It's interesting to hear that your headspace is actually. You just want to tell stories, and the bar is an interesting way of doing that, rather than that being part of, like, an expanding empire. Just certainly does not sound like your interest. And for me, I have a similar thing where I'm like, if, you know, I want to expand into other areas, but I'd want it to be tightly coupled with what I think is my core interest and competency. If somebody was like, you could open. Open a wildly successful burger chain in Japan, I was like, no, I don't care. Like, it's not important to me. Like, I don't want to just. Just for the sake of.

[Chris Broad]

You have to get some personal enjoyment out of it. Right. You know, you have to really enjoy the process. And with videos, I think a lot of YouTubers get big, take the, you know, step away from the videos, and they can suffer for it. Whereas I realized that maybe I outsourced too much editing and too much of the filming process of my YouTube channel to other people. And I realized, oh, wait, I actually really. This is the thing I love the most. Making.

[Emily]

Right, Right.

[Chris Broad]

Right. So I sort of stepped back into filming myself and editing myself a bit more often, which is obviously going to compromise how much revenue I can make because the role. The first rule, you have so much time. Yeah. You guys don't sit around editing this video. Right. You've got other things to make. And I have them all personally, actually.

[Doug]

It's going to come out in six years.

[Aiden]

Years. Are you like, how does it look for you right now? Do you have other projects in the future, other companies, ideas that you have sitting around in your head that you want to turn into businesses or just new types of projects that you haven't pursued before?

[Connor]

I think video games are just ruining my life.

[Doug]

I've had this thought about yours, and because you're not going to expand on.

[Emily]

That or I'm going to ask you about that.

[Doug]

This is about what he's saying. I was like, wow, that sounded really interesting. It's about what you're saying. It's about what you're saying. And I want to jump in. Okay, so you And Squeaks are like the two creators that I watch.

[Connor]

Okay.

[Doug]

Oh, wow.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Doug]

And I was thinking about, you know, because I used to do more variety gaming stuff and now I'm doing more new stuff.

[Aiden]

Yeah.

[Doug]

And when I did that, I was like, I think this is important, I should talk about this stuff. But I've been more thinking lately that I feel like you guys, by just doing really positive, consistent, good gaming stuff and making this space. That said, you're doing more good for.

[Chris Broad]

The world than anything else.

[Doug]

Like, I truly actually.

[Chris Broad]

Oh, right.

[Connor]

Interesting.

[Doug]

I actually think this. So I want to know what you're like. Are you just doing cuz you love games or do you feel like you're creating something there? I don't know.

[Connor]

I don't feel like I'm creating anything.

[Doug]

Okay.

[Connor]

I feel like I'm, I like games. I, I like games.

[Chris Broad]

It's a humble way to look at it.

[Doug]

But I, I, I don't know.

[Connor]

Like, I mean, like, it's, it's cool, you know, I got a lot of. I'm sure you've all got people that you employ as well or have people on your team that help. And it's cool to just be able to like, be like, yeah, man, I got this cool guy who just helps make the videos and he gets to, he gets paid really well and he gets to do whatever he wants. I don't tell him what to do, he just does it.

[Emily]

That, that part's unusual.

[Doug]

Be funny if your books are terrible.

[Connor]

Your business is falling apart.

[Doug]

You've never checked.

[Connor]

Well, that's like when I, when I, I don't know. I know everyone's very different, but like, if I have to like micromanage, it's, it's, I can't, I can't do it. Like I'm, I'm fucking degenerately gaming for 12 hours a day. It's like ridiculous. I can't, I can't be like, I can't sit there and like you're playing.

[Chris Broad]

To your strength, which is that you're a natural sort of performer and you enjoy the performance aspect, right?

[Emily]

I try to, but it's positive.

[Doug]

It's not like, I'm not going to name any names, but there's like degenerate gaming that is a more negative tilt to it. And I think that you're not so sick though, if you can believe it.

[Connor]

But games are so good.

[Chris Broad]

How can you be negative?

[Doug]

You know? Reminds me again of your video.

[Connor]

It's like, I think, I don't know about, I know Squeaks plays a variety of games, but I try not to play, like, games that are only current as well. I try to play, like, a lot.

[Doug]

You play some weird ones.

[Connor]

Honestly, I played Bioshock recently. Like, I just play a game that I'm like, I really always, always wanted to play this game. And I'm like, all right, let's film it. Let's do it. Let's just stream it. And then I. Hopefully it's good. And I try to find. Because I realize, you know, man, I'm sure maybe you've had this point in your life where you sort of consume a lot of things and you realize that often either you were just consuming to consume, like, just to have an opinion on it, or just to, like, watch it because you've heard, like, someone said it's good, or that you watched it and you weren't, like, trying to find enjoyment from it, but you were just watching it. You know what I mean? Have you ever done this just to.

[Doug]

Fill time, just so, like, your brain is used to it?

[Sponsor Voice 3]

Yeah.

[Connor]

So, like, when I would find. Play a game, it's like, I know that there are a lot of people who enjoy this game. I know people had an aspect of this childhood that's tied to it, and it's like, I'm gonna go into this and try my best to, like, enjoy it. Like, try to find everything that's good about at it, even if I, like, hate certain things. And I will complain when I don't like something. And people always get mad at me for doing that. When I get tilted, they're like, no, it's great. It's great that the menu has 15 layers in and you got a gun. I'm like, no, you. This is dumb. So, you know, but I. I just found myself trying to, like, really be more conscious about appreciating media that I consumed. Maybe that comes off in the videos. I don't know.

[Doug]

Yeah, but big projects, it's just refreshing.

[Connor]

I appreciate that, but I wish I had big projects. I mean, Chris is doing some cool stuff, and I like. I like what Chris is doing. It's great because I get free easy. I get free drinks at bars. All I have to do is be like, it's the best. And it is.

[Emily]

It's free.

[Connor]

No kidding.

[Chris Broad]

I'm just gonna focus on the aspects of that you enjoy the most. Yeah. As a natural performer, I enjoy the. I enjoy the filming side holding the camera, actually. And the cinematography, it's my favorite part.

[Connor]

But I've been doing a lot of hosting for panels and company, like videos. Like a Bandai Direct. Hosted that. That was really fun. Did like, I hosted something for the British Embassy recently that was really fun. Just hosting is so fun.

[Doug]

I mean, and I know you're telling the truth because you think he made up, though. No, he does it for no money or like. No, he does it for the love of it.

[Connor]

A lot of the stuff I don't get paid very well for. Well, okay, let me, like, let me just preface, like, as a YouTuber, you have a lot of avenues where you can make a lot more money from doing certain things.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Connor]

And it's, it's like voice acting. I do a lot of voice acting. Still voice acting. In comparison to YouTube, at least, you know, the level that we're doing it on, it's very different pay. And even most voice actors that do it, Most of voice actors do it because then they go to conventions and make the money.

[Doug]

Right.

[Connor]

Because the voice acting, you get maybe $250 an hour, which sounds great. It's awesome. 250 is amazing. But then you're only in the booth for three hours maybe for that whole main character. And if you're a side character in there for one hour or two hour minimum sometimes is standard. And 500 bucks if you're in LA is nothing. You can't do anything with it. So you often have to do conventions. And some of them will do 25 conventions a year, which means they're flying to, like, you know, Minnesota every weekend or every other weekend. It's crazy to make their money. But I love doing voice acting. It's so fun.

[Doug]

No, I didn't even know you when we asked you to do voice acting for the get to Work game. And again, the budget was really small and you just did it. And he did it.

[Connor]

I'll do fly. Five pence.

[Doug]

I think that was crazy, you know?

[Chris Broad]

Yeah, you do my videos for five pence.

[Connor]

I, I, Yes, I will do it.

[Chris Broad]

You do my next book.

[Doug]

You looked away on that one.

[Aiden]

All of your content been dubbed over Connor's voice.

[Chris Broad]

When I wrote the book, I had to do a bloody audible, you know, book. And I was like, this is, I can't do this. Yeah, he would have been great doing well.

[Connor]

It's like when I did recently I dub, I directed G's English dub for his anime and I just assumed I was doing it for free. And Carlton was like, oh, I'm gonna pay you, by the way. I was like, oh, okay, nice. That's cool. Okay, cool.

[Doug]

He's Doug now he's basically. He's you. You can just.

[Connor]

Yeah. Hopefully Doug can get one of these AI things going for me so I.

[Chris Broad]

Can.

[Emily]

Replace.

[Chris Broad]

Michael Caine sold his voice to 11 lane.

[Doug]

Really?

[Connor]

I mean, he's old.

[Chris Broad]

He's probably.

[Connor]

They probably just gave him so much money he couldn't say no.

[Emily]

But, yeah, if you want a day off, I can mu. Clone your voice. I will sit there mouthing like this on your stream, and it's your AI voice we can easily replace you Just let me know.

[Connor]

It sounds like a funny stream. That would be a funny stream. I did a tts, though. I recorded loads of lines for TTS for like, Iron Mouse as a booby character that I definitely don't do the voice of. And I had to record, like, the script for a TTS voice for it. So, like, if you go on channel, you can hear this meeting this, like, funny voice. That's funny. It's definitely not me. It's like. And so I had to read this eight script that was gibberish because they just want you to make all the sounds in English.

[Doug]

Oh, I see.

[Connor]

So I'm doing these sounds for it and does it sound good? This one sounds freakishly good. Apparently when I speak in foreign languages, I sound really good because apparently they all love it when the. The TTS speak Spanish. And apparently I sound, like, really good in Spanish. It's also mogging the out of me because I'm listening to that. I'm like, I sound so good in Spanish and I can't speak. I sound so hot in Spanish. That's funny.

[Chris Broad]

This is like the.

[Aiden]

The Schlatt AI clips of him speaking Chinese. But it's Schlatt's voice.

[Connor]

But yeah, it was. It was interesting. I had to, like, speak these, like, Chinese words in this script that I didn't. I didn't understand why I was doing it. But I, I. When I said the word, I was like, oh, it's trying to get me to make this very specific sound so that it has it in the bank.

[Chris Broad]

Oh, my God.

[Connor]

But it's only used for Iron Mouse channel. I was like, I don't want to use anywhere else. But also I've had people take my voice and make AI ads. Anyway, I can't. I can't.

[Doug]

Yeah, I mean, that's a big thing, right? And I've heard there's a rising amount of, you know, like, bank fraud. Like, they get a snip of your.

[Connor]

Voice and they call your. My voice channel is like fucking 1 billion hours of my voice.

[Aiden]

I think it was. It was Slime when he was managing stuff for Ludwig, and he called. He's responsible for a bunch of Ludwig stuff at the time. He's trying to figure out how to make his company and get his taxes paid because Ludwig hadn't taken care of any of this at the time, Right? And Slime's on the phone with somebody and they're like, well, you're not Ludwig Ogarin. Like, you. You can't do this. And Slime was like, if I call you back and I say I'm Ludwig on the phone, what happens then? And then the person didn't like that because. Because I think the security level with whatever this institution was is like, that's all it would take.

[Doug]

He's broken the system.

[Aiden]

And she was like, I'm hanging up. I'm going now.

[Chris Broad]

Oh, my gosh. So funny.

[Connor]

Oh, God.

[Doug]

Should have done it just to have voice.

[Connor]

I pretty. Pretty did do it. Known Slime.

[Aiden]

Yeah, probably.

[Connor]

Probably.

[Aiden]

We got it all under wraps now.

[Chris Broad]

I think that's interesting.

[Connor]

That's so funny.

[Emily]

We've got three minutes left. Let's fully cover AI voices and all the implications for society.

[Connor]

Okay, let's really dig into this, guys.

[Chris Broad]

Let's solve this problem.

[Connor]

We're so cooked. Yeah, we're so cooked. I think it'll be like. It'll be like, I don't know, some fancy ham. It's like. They'll just. They'll be like, we got.

[Doug]

I'm loving where this is going.

[Connor]

We'll be like. It'll be like the. The party that's like, no, no. For this production, we got the real thing. We got the real voice. They're.

[Chris Broad]

The.

[Doug]

Jack Dorsey is relaunching vine as of this morning. And it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be. Their big selling point is. It's.

[Emily]

As of. As of this morning. A month ago. Ago.

[Doug]

Oh, is this a month ago?

[Emily]

I'm sorry.

[Connor]

I know.

[Chris Broad]

Date. He. I saw a post right there.

[Emily]

The joke is that this episode will be. Anyway.

[Doug]

As of a few months ago, they're relaunching Vine. I don't even know.

[Chris Broad]

It's probably dead by now.

[Connor]

You guys remember three weeks ago, they.

[Aiden]

Announced vine, too, like, five years ago.

[Connor]

They've done it a bunch. But the selling point this time.

[Doug]

TikTok, there's selling points. There's no AI at all.

[Connor]

That's going to be impossible to regulate.

[Doug]

Yeah, I guess. But I do think there's something of what you're saying with the ham. The Crazy ham analogy. People are going to want more. Like this is going to become a luxury.

[Aiden]

That's that. Yeah, that's my fear is like with anything now, right you. There's already a market for bespoke products that are made by, you know, it's made the same way it was 500 years ago. And like. And that's the reason you're buying it. But ultimately that market will always be significantly smaller than the bulk produced gets the job done thing. And I'm worried that AI voice or AI or whatever is going to trend in that.

[Chris Broad]

Did you see Coca Cola's advert? The Coca Cola Christmas advert was terrible though. That was absolute. And the market was like, the genie's out of the bottle. We've got to use it. You don't have to use it. You better.

[Connor]

You don't.

[Chris Broad]

And whereas Apple released an ad for their logo and they showed it was all shot practically, they filmed, they had the logo and they had like a guy with the light and it looked really good. And so you don't have to use AI slot.

[Connor]

Scary.

[Aiden]

Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

But companies will do it. Yes. And it will get better.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

Thing is like, eventually it's gonna be, you know, it's gonna be Connor's TTS voice. It's gonna be indistinguishable. We don't even need you.

[Doug]

Well, I will say, I mean, you.

[Connor]

Don'T even need me.

[Chris Broad]

It would be creepy.

[Connor]

I. I handed the keys and the deed willingly.

[Chris Broad]

We can.

[Doug]

You just want a game.

[Connor]

Your game is offline, dude. If they let me game in peace.

[Doug]

I'm happy playing the same game offline and online.

[Chris Broad]

You'll be able to type in like a prompt like I want trash taste to talk about pie and hit enter. And then you'll get a two hour podcast and it'll be the three of them talking about pie.

[Connor]

We do that now.

[Doug]

This is the big reveal.

[Chris Broad]

I want the ham and pie special.

[Connor]

I don't know what that analogy was. That's crazy. I was just thinking about how I was hungry.

[Chris Broad]

It was really weird. It's made me quite hungry.

[Connor]

Boys.

[Doug]

Is that it?

[Aiden]

I mean, I, I don't know if this is too. Forgive me if this is too big of a question, but one, one last thing I wanted to ask you guys on the, you know, narrative versus reality part again is you hear that there is this uptick in realization of work culture in Japan, maybe being a little out of date, maybe a little dysfunctional, maybe not so good that people have to work like 12 hours a day for the company they work for. And I've heard that things are changing or shifting.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

And I also have heard from people that it's not changing as quickly as people think it is. I just wanted your guys thoughts on that.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah, I think it's changing. I think the overwork over time thing has improved. I do think it has improved from what I know. And they. There's always talk about having a four hour work week. Right, sorry, a four day work week. Yeah, that'll be great. So I think it is getting better.

[Connor]

Yeah, it is getting better. You know, there's a lot more companies that allow you to do remote on some days in the office, other days.

[Chris Broad]

Remote work.

[Connor]

Yeah, yeah, it is changing. I mean, you know, it's like everything in Japan, it's slow, but it'll happen, you know, but like people want change, so it'll happen, happen. It's just sometimes it takes long, you know. But in a sense, Covid did speed up a lot of this stuff for Japan because it kind of forced them to go online for a lot of aspects and it did adopt zoom as an alternative to just always doing in person meetings.

[Doug]

Yeah.

[Connor]

And Japan loves a good, good talking.

[Aiden]

About meeting days, meeting like. Like the formality of meeting days with.

[Connor]

You always have to have so many meetings before you do anything.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah. And they're very long, boring.

[Aiden]

Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

People have to sort of go around circle.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

Every.

[Connor]

Every meeting I'll have with an LA agent or whatever or whoever.

[Chris Broad]

The.

[Connor]

In la it's always 30 minutes and. But trans. Always an hour. That's at the key difference.

[Doug]

Fill the full hour.

[Connor]

Sometimes they'll fill the full hour. Sometimes I'll go over. It really depends, you know, like, because if we do like a. If there's a lot of like a partnership or something, it's like. Or I'll do a live stream for a company, they'll ask for the script.

[Chris Broad]

Jesus.

[Aiden]

How can you.

[Chris Broad]

What?

[Connor]

Yeah, yeah, they'll ask for the script.

[Doug]

For the live stream script for like a two hour.

[Connor]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sometimes. Yeah.

[Aiden]

We had. You guys know who Asa Butterfield is, the actor, right? Yeah, so we had him on the yard a long time ago because we had a weird. Yeah, we had a weird connection to. To him through Smash and like Esports. So he's coming on and he's the first guest we have that we're talking to an agent. There's a bit more of a formality of the process and they were like, can you send over all the questions, questions that you're gonna ask Him, Adam. And we're the yard, like where we, where we talk about and come and. And we're like, I didn't know we.

[Doug]

Had to prep that out. How much in your comb?

[Connor]

One of the questions I got asked in the office, was I circumcised?

[Aiden]

Are you cut or uncut?

[Chris Broad]

Okay.

[Connor]

Am I Asian?

[Chris Broad]

I need to know all the questions.

[Emily]

How's that been changing over time in Japan?

[Aiden]

What's the shift on circumcision in Japan? Do you guys know about that?

[Connor]

Get the total four. So, you know, they want to live stream, but a lot of the times what they, what they're asking for is, you know, yes, they want a script, but what they really want is something to be able to say that this is what you're going to say. And they're going to give that to the higher ups and say, boss, we are not irresponsible. We didn't just let this guy loose. And so often we just send like talking points and they're like, then that's normally okay. Sometimes they want a script and it really depends on what it is. But like, for like if I do a panel or something and then I've done a lot of panels where we'll host it for like a Japanese game company and they'll have a panel and that will be scripted. Like a full hour panel, fully scripted.

[Doug]

That's crazy.

[Connor]

And so I'll have to go through.

[Chris Broad]

The beats with that's crazy.

[Connor]

And then we'll always have to have a pre meeting for the panel and sometimes that even they'll have a pre meeting and then a rehearsal and then the panel.

[Doug]

And this is all ass covering from the bosses. Like it's all people getting.

[Connor]

Well, a lot of. I would say in Japan there's often the, the, the. I don't know if you agree, Chris, but like people want to not be the one responsible for if something goes wrong. And so there's like a lot of, a lot of checks and bounces. So they'll always check with the higher up and then that guy will check with their higher up. And so instead of like it just being like, you know, your project, I've done like marketing for some things where they own the full rights to the thing. And even on the day I'll be like, can I say this? And they'll be like, oh, we gotta ask the shareholders. It's like, if I can say this line.

[Doug]

Shareholders.

[Connor]

Yeah, yeah, that's great.

[Aiden]

This is what some people thought us signing with Vox was going to be like. That's what some people thought. And I'm like, no man, I'm just showing up and I'm kind of spitballing the Sudan civil war.

[Doug]

Like let me check with VOX before we put that in. Yeah.

[Connor]

So it's, you know, this, the aspects of it. But you know, it's, you know, you just get used to it and some things are crazy, some things aren't. Just you get used to it, you.

[Doug]

Got to screw it up.

[Aiden]

This seems to be the theme of the episode is.

[Connor]

Yeah. It's not like as crazy as you think when you go through it a couple of times because you're like, okay. It's just like to make everyone feel a lot more comfortable.

[Chris Broad]

I will say I've tried to work with Japanese companies a lot less over the years though. I had one shoot that was sponsored and after I'd shot it they were like, we didn't like you wore shorts. And they made me crop my legs out of every shot. And it was 42 degrees Celsius outside.

[Connor]

The big thing is that you normally don't more want to give editing rights.

[Chris Broad]

I got a spreadsheet with 120 changes I like. Right. But I'll give you 120 reasons to go yourself.

[Aiden]

I was.

[Connor]

Yeah, that, that. Yeah. No, I have had a shoot one time at a building. Shoot was like barely like in that building. It was like one tenth of the video. And they want, they gave me notes and want to change outside of their shoot location. They were like, we don't want to be associated with that because we like drank a beer or something on this other place. And so they sent us like a ton of things to change. I've also done press events where I thought it was a press event where you just get to go. But the press event, everyone at every press that went had to agree to the editorial rights that went through the company.

[Chris Broad]

My God.

[Connor]

And I was not, I was not very thrilled about that because what they ended up changing was literally everything.

[Chris Broad]

Wow.

[Connor]

Like I couldn't have any opinion on anything.

[Chris Broad]

They.

[Connor]

They absolutely butchered it.

[Chris Broad]

I would love to watch you have no opinion about anything.

[Connor]

I can show you the video. I can show you the video.

[Chris Broad]

I like it. Yes. Like what would you.

[Connor]

There was one thing I said. I was like, I had, I had a preference. I was like, I don't really like these types of designs normally. I said something along those lines. It was like very non committal and they were like, you must cut that out.

[Chris Broad]

Oh my God.

[Connor]

Cuz they're like you, you might Offend people who do like it.

[Chris Broad]

How would you talk about oranges? Because you hate oranges. You famously hate oranges. How would you. You discuss oranges?

[Connor]

I could.

[Aiden]

I can't support you.

[Connor]

You can. Yeah. It's like, it's. It is. Yeah. It is extremely restrictive. And, you know, I think everyone has this trial by fire. You just get these moments, you're like.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah, I've just stopped working with Japanese cupboards. Okay. So normally.

[Connor]

Normally what happens is Japanese companies, they'll. They pay you a lot less because obviously the yen's weaker and the marketing budget's less. And then on top of that, they have oftentimes maybe 3 to 5x the amount of asks and restrictions.

[Chris Broad]

Yep.

[Connor]

So it's like, you do pick your battles.

[Doug]

Wait till you see the cut of this episode.

[Chris Broad]

We're gonna.

[Doug]

You're talking to me.

[Connor]

I'm gonna. By the way, the whole time you're in the party, like, you have company. I don't have a company in Japan, by the way.

[Aiden]

You don't?

[Chris Broad]

No, no.

[Connor]

I'm just a part. Like, I'm on the board of a company.

[Aiden]

What?

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

I thought this is. This is.

[Chris Broad]

Kick him off.

[Doug]

This is a business show.

[Connor]

You said it. I was like Chris Dawes. And I don't.

[Chris Broad]

I.

[Aiden]

Pretty much every YouTuber I streamer I know, like, has a company that their business goes under, but you don't.

[Connor]

No.

[Aiden]

That's wild.

[Chris Broad]

You don't deserve to be in here.

[Connor]

Yeah, yeah. Because it's just with. If you have a company in Japan and you own the company, it changes visa restrictions.

[Aiden]

Oh, wow.

[Chris Broad]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Complicated.

[Aiden]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Connor]

So I just pay. Pay the full income tax, and boom. Boy, oh, boy. Oh.

[Aiden]

Okay. I mean, thank you guys for coming on. We really, really appreciate it.

[Emily]

I appreciate both of y' all on top of joining the podcast that I think both of you are putting more, like, optimism into the world, even if it's not explicit. Like, I don't. I assume that wasn't your goal, going into plants versus Zombies. I just think. But you explicitly acknowledge that, and I feel very. I feel very sensitive to that and think about that a lot this year. So I appreciate. Appreciate very much. There are people out there and intentionally or unintentionally, just being like, hey, there are good things going on in the world. There's good vibes and there's good. I appreciate that a lot.

[Doug]

Since not even just in the concert, in the community you build around, I feel like you're. You're the people in your comments section. And the. In the. What you're putting on the Internet is a more positive space and that's cool. It's nice.

[Connor]

It's nice to see. I think we both made banter very well and able to show Japan in a very realistic but fun way. I mean, the title from this is.

[Doug]

Going to be the UK is failing in 30 days.

[Aiden]

We left. We left the UK.

[Chris Broad]

Civil war is coming.

[Doug]

Just be ready for that. But thank you so much for coming on.

[Chris Broad]

Thanks so much, guys.

[Connor]

Thank you.

[Chris Broad]

Thank you. At the same time.