[HN Gopher] Middle-aged man trading cards go viral in rural Japa...
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Middle-aged man trading cards go viral in rural Japan town
Author : PaulHoule
Score : 263 points
Date : 2025-04-07 21:03 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.tokyoweekender.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.tokyoweekender.com)
| bangaroo wrote:
| i needed an "oh, that's really nice" story today. this delivered.
|
| in every way, this seems well-intentioned, quirky, cute, fun, and
| positive. unless there's some subtext i'm missing, this is just a
| good and nice thing happening that's great for everyone involved.
|
| nice to have a story like that these days.
| uneoneuno wrote:
| Reminds me of "Divorced Dads" playing cards
| GlassOwAter wrote:
| Haha yep!
| dmix wrote:
| I wonder which one came first
| 1317 wrote:
| Original video and articles (in Japanese)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m21OBCVPWo
|
| https://www.fnn.jp/articles/-/842101
|
| https://www.fnn.jp/articles/-/838709
| NickC25 wrote:
| That's awesome.
|
| Town celebrates its own via a medium that the youth seek out on
| their own. The youth then forge closer connections with their
| elders. Everyone is happy, everyone wins.
| oulipo wrote:
| Except that women are totally absent?? does nobody on HN even
| realize that?
| tomcam wrote:
| Hey, what about the women?
| falcor84 wrote:
| Putting on my Product Manager hat, the best product launches
| often focus on a single well-defined persona, as this one
| apparently did. Now that this is proven to work, they can
| expand to middle-aged women, older people, younger people,
| animals and what have you. But I think that this is a great
| start.
| flashgordon wrote:
| Wow this is so heartwarming. Actually celebrating "common humans"
| is so underrated. And kids doing this no less is even more
| amazing!
| Trasmatta wrote:
| This sounds like something straight out of the Yakuza video game
| series. Which, incidentally, is a series largely focused on
| middle aged men - I would love a set of these cards with Kiryu,
| Majima, Saejima, Akiyama, Ichiban, Nanba, Adachi, etc...
| pelagic_sky wrote:
| Need a Nancy card so badly...
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| I thought the same thing. The sujimon in the Like a Dragon
| games are conceptually pretty similar (except it's various
| Yakuza mobs you're collecting).
| statskier wrote:
| That's neat. I hope they expand it to include middle aged women
| in the community too.
| klipt wrote:
| Men statistically have fewer social connections and suffer more
| from loneliness as they get older, so if the goal is to remedy
| that, it makes sense to start with men first.
| dTal wrote:
| I see no particular reason to discriminate even from the get-
| go. Nor was addressing loneliness even the goal.
| klipt wrote:
| If one house is on fire and you spray water on it to put
| out the fire, do you feel obligated to spray water on every
| other house too so that the other houses don't feel
| discriminated against?
| 9dev wrote:
| If you're the fire department, acting on the governments
| behalf? Yes.
| klipt wrote:
| Fire departments spray water on not burning houses?
| tspike wrote:
| You could apply the same logic to "Women in X" groups. It's
| not discrimination as much as it is support.
| treme wrote:
| I hope they expand it to include LGBTQA2s+ in the community
| too.
| pelagic_sky wrote:
| Reminds me of the fisherman call where you could sign up to have
| a professional fisherman give you a wake up call.
| https://soranews24.com/2017/05/12/japanese-fishermen-start-m...
| 0cf8612b2e1e wrote:
| "Good morning! Are you up?" asks the fisherman in the video, to
| which the user replies "Yes, thanks to you. Are you on your
| ship?" "Yeah, I got up at 3, so I'm already on the sea," he
| replies, before adding "I caught a really big fish."
|
| I'm not sure how much demand there is for this product, but
| that really brought a smile to my face.
| wil421 wrote:
| I don't speak Japanese but I would pay for this. Trying to
| get up and run before 6 is a chore. Having a fisherman wake
| up call would be awesome and motivating. Especially for
| someone who loves fishing.
| BurningFrog wrote:
| Last year it was a real fisherman.
|
| Next year it will be an AI.
| zoogeny wrote:
| I still remember decades and decades ago hearing about vending
| machines in Japan. Someone mentioned going to Japan and how you
| could get cold cans of coffee out of vending machines there. This
| was sometime in the 1990s, before even Starbucks was a huge
| thing. Everyone I knew thought the idea of cold coffee was
| ridiculous, a quirk of the Japanese that would never catch on.
|
| I feel the Japanese have been pretty good at exporting culture,
| but it has a lot of misses among the few hits. I wonder if this
| is something that would catch on outside of Japan.
| pelagic_sky wrote:
| And vending machines with hot drinks and soups, my favorite
| being cream of corn soup...which I have yet to see stateside.
|
| Another thing Japan had before the US was texting on your
| phone. I was living in Japan at the time and recall telling my
| American friend who worked as a Manager at ATT about texting
| and she thought it was the dumbest thing she had ever heard of.
| bombcar wrote:
| I've seen vending machines in the USA dispense hot soup, it
| was at a rest stop somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
|
| No idea if they had cream of corn.
| thfuran wrote:
| Emoji also caught on, I'm told.
| flanbiscuit wrote:
| I was living in Australia in 2000 and texting was more common
| than calling because it was cheaper to text than call. But in
| the US it was the opposite. You had unlimited calling, but
| plans around that time had a different pricing scheme for
| texting (can't remember the exact details) so could be one
| reason why it took the US a bit longer to finally pick up
| texting. I remember it was about a year or 2 later that I
| felt texting started to become more common in the US.
| sien wrote:
| Yeah, I lived in Europe in 1999 and 2000 and then moved to
| the US. In the EU you could text people from different
| countries and it would often work.
|
| Then I moved to the US and the shock of not being able to
| text between networks was really something. That and
| writing cheques. I'd never written a cheque in Australia or
| Europe but you sort of had to in the US while electronic
| payments between banks were sorted in Australia in the
| 1990s.
|
| These days it seems when a technology appears it generally
| spreads more quickly.
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| Kinkos in the 90s (back when it was a by-the-hour computer
| lab) had vending machines with hot chicken soup.
| MisterTea wrote:
| > And vending machines with hot drinks and soups, my favorite
| being cream of corn soup...which I have yet to see stateside.
|
| Its a cultural thing I am sure. As an American I will say
| that prepared food served from a vending machine is going to
| be associated with low quality and possible poor hygiene. I'd
| equate it with food from a gas station store or roach coach
| (mobile canteen)- food prepared with little care or quality,
| destined to be sold for as little as possible while still
| being profitable. Stale bread, wilted vegetables, low quality
| meats, cheese, etc, sloppy prep. Who cares, ship it.
|
| On the other hand, I can see food vendors in Japan guarding
| their reputation with attention to their craft ensuring
| quality.
| goosedragons wrote:
| Emoji is a Japanese thing too. It's why a lot of the early
| emoji are kind of odd from a western point of view, like the
| naruto fish cake, Japanese top secret emoji and hot bath
| symbol.
| soupfordummies wrote:
| Yeah! The hot corn liquid from a vending machine was maybe
| the weirdest thing I had when I visited.
| throw0101d wrote:
| > _Someone mentioned going to Japan and how you could get cold
| cans of coffee out of vending machines there._
|
| The actor Tommy Lee Jones has some amusing commercials for
| canned coffee:
|
| * https://www.brandinginasia.com/the-tuesday-take-suntory-
| boss...
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_Coffee
|
| The premise is that he is an alien in disguise evaluating human
| society, so some of the situations shown are quite whimsical.
| neilv wrote:
| > _There 's an old tradition of American stars appearing in
| Japanese television commercials, [...] before downing what
| appears to be about a four ounce can of Suntory Iced Rainbow
| Blend coffee._
|
| Was this tradition _referenced_ or _inspired_ by Bill Murray
| 's "Suntory Time" scene in "Lost in Translation" (2003)?
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiQnH450hPM
| throw0101d wrote:
| Westerners in Japan has been a thing for decades:
|
| > _Anyone who has seen Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation
| must wonder for at least a second if there is truth in Bill
| Murray's character of a famous American actor in Japan to
| film a commercial. Well, there definitely is. Huge American
| and European stars have been hawking products in Japanese
| commercials for decades._
|
| * https://www.cinemablend.com/movies/western-entertainers-
| who-...
|
| * https://www.goretro.com/2015/08/sake-to-me-western-
| celebs-in...
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_in_Japan_(phrase)
| echelon wrote:
| > Someone mentioned going to Japan and how you could get cold
| cans of coffee out of vending machines there.
|
| They're everywhere!
|
| In rural Hokkaido, some people even have them outside their
| home's driveway for people walking by. They have various teas
| (green, hojicha, jasmine, etc.), Coke and Pepsi products,
| Pocari Sweat (like Gatorade), iced coffees, and sometimes even
| hot teas and hot coffees that are heated on demand. They're
| super convenient and something I miss having in America (we
| seemed to have more of them here in the 90's and early 2000's).
|
| The only problem is that in Japan there can sometimes be
| absolutely zero public garbage (or, more correctly, recycling)
| bins in sight. You have to carry your trash with you, which is
| a bit annoying and mildly gross if it spills.
| bsder wrote:
| Japanese vending machines are an act of engineering beauty:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AJnGjMAObA
| bombcar wrote:
| Apparently the "fat Steve" minecraft toy is sold out everywhere.
|
| https://shop.mattel.com/products/minecraft-steve-large-scale...
| flerchin wrote:
| Ages 74, 81, and 68. Are these middle aged?
| Ifkaluva wrote:
| In Japan, yes
| atoav wrote:
| This such a genius idea to get the kids to learn about the people
| in their community.
| everyone wrote:
| Reminds me of divorced dads card game
| https://www.youtube.com/@AudioOpera
| doormatt wrote:
| Thank you! I knew it reminded me of something!
| Uptrenda wrote:
| Creativity thrives in Japan. I wonder why this country seems so
| prolific in that regards.
| asadm wrote:
| I feel like this is the kind of stuff that will be common with
| AI. Imagine having a whatsapp family group and a bot auto-
| generates this type of games for you based on your group.
|
| It's a privacy nightmare but it will be fun for sure.
| astrange wrote:
| Interesting translation issue where they use the dictionary
| definition of "ossan" (middle aged guy) but then they're all
| senior citizens.
| mosura wrote:
| This is a superb idea. I had seen random cat gacha but not
| trading cards of random dudes.
|
| Most efforts at custom TCGs seem to go nowhere at all because of
| the absence of any practical trading meta game, so bootstrapping
| that with local interest is a very neat marketing move that
| aligns very well with the desired community engagement.
|
| The result is that whole idea is greater than the sum of its
| parts.
| mrexroad wrote:
| I clicked the headline expecting a chuckle and left with an
| unexpectedly warmed heart.
|
| > "We wanted to strengthen the connection between the children
| and the older generations in the community. There are so many
| amazing people here. I thought it was such a shame that no one
| knew about them," [...] "Since the card game went viral, so many
| kids are starting to look up to these men as heroic figures." >
| Kids have started attending local events and volunteering for
| community activities -- just for a chance to meet the ojisan from
| their cards. Participation in town events has reportedly doubled
| since the game launched.
|
| there's so much more I want to comment on--it's not screen-based,
| increased cross-generational interaction, strengthening
| community, elders having their stories known--but what I love is
| that these effects will compound into even greater benefits for
| the community.
| xivzgrev wrote:
| This brings back something we've mostly lost in modern times.
| Elders had respect because they knew a lot and had contributed
| a lot, and everyone knew that. But that's not scalable, and we
| migrate a lot more now.
|
| This is an engaging way that brings that back - rather than
| focusing on fantasy heroes, show kids real life role models.
| neilv wrote:
| The Oregon Graduate Institute (or maybe just the CS&E dept.) once
| made trading cards of the professors, to promote STEM to area
| children.
| stevage wrote:
| This is a stupid idea that couldn't possibly work. But it did?
| tomcam wrote:
| MY TIME HAS FINALLY COME
|
| Wait I'm actually elderly
| xrd wrote:
| The whole point of this is that we've reached breaking point with
| the ridiculous attempt to replace everything with a digital
| experience. It is fitting that Japan, which was arguably the
| place where the digital revolution really took off, should be the
| first place where it is rejected.
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