"If your work isn't what you love, then something isn't right." — Talking Heads
Last January, NHK's nightly in-depth news series, "Closeup Gendai," ran a feature about the practice of "poeticizing" (poemu-ka) the harsher aspects of life. It's not a trend that's easy to explain, and the program used an event called Izakaya Koshien as an illustration. A food service industry convention invites izakaya (drinking establishments) from all over Japan to send employees who present their ideas for "making Japan feel good." On stage, staff from the businesses they represent declaimed in stylized speech how much they love their work and how it fulfills their "dreams." The most convincing presentation won a prize.
Though the contest was not the focus of the report, it became a topic of controversy, according to the Japan Business Journal. The Internet was filled with derisive comments by people who found the emotions on display "weird" and reminiscent of cultlike "mind control." Some blasted NHK for showing the competition in what they perceived as a positive light. But the organizers of the convention also complained, saying that NHK manipulated its coverage to make the presentations seem "unpleasant."