Читать книгу A Gaijin's Guide to Japan: An alternative look at Japanese life, history and culture - Ben Stevens - Страница 9

He was mobbed everywhere he went! Japanese boys and young men wore their red Manchester United shirts with pride as they bellowed their adoration! Some female office workers even styled their hair into a bleached blond Mohican in tribute!

And then David Beckham allegedly had an affair and lost it all. Such a loss of face is serious stuff in Japan, and the resulting public disgrace and humiliation (which will, of course, only occur if you’re famous) can last years.

You might stand half a chance of regaining the limelight if you wait a suitable length of time before grovelling for forgiveness, but, let’s face it, Becks had basically cleaned up by then anyway. When I was in Japan in 2003/2004, there seemed to be scarcely a product—from cars and phones, right down to bars of candy—that he wasn’t being paid squillions of yen to advertise.

Strangely enough, Posh was quick to jump on the bandwagon, hence the slightly vomit-inducing advertisement for a ‘his-n-hers’ perfume that featured a head-and-shoulders snap of her and Becks together, the single word underneath—Beauty.

It all depends on your personal definition of the word, I suppose.