Extremely Inappropriate, hit TV series on Netflix, calls out Japanese society past and present

The show’s satire of how Japan has changed over the decades has struck a chord with viewers young and old.

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In February 2024, it became the first programme made by major Japanese broadcaster TBS to top Netflix’s most-watched list in Japan for three weeks running.

Producer Aki Isoyama, who is 56, initially thought it would be “very challenging” to poke fun at today’s progressive values without triggering a backlash from the public.

The show is not meant as a verdict on the superiority of one era over the other, she says.

But one inspiration for Isoyama and screenwriter Kankuro Kudo, 53, was the idea that “life has become more difficult in some aspects today”.

“Our society has certainly gotten better, but in a way more restrictive, too, with everything dictated by compliance and protocols,” Isoyama says.

Today, when something is pronounced unacceptable, “we often unquestioningly accept that explanation and refrain from saying or doing it”, she adds.

“The show will hopefully make viewers stop and ask themselves: ‘Why was it banned in the first place?’”

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“It’s good we’re now more mindful of things like sexual harassment,” she says, adding that she understands why some might feel “too many things are perhaps restricted and kept unsaid”.

Meanwhile, freewheeling Ogawa – who in his own bygone world yells “grow a pair!” at male students and teases women about menopause – is lambasted by today’s generation, including a feminist sociologist.

Viewer Kyo Maeda, 68, calls the show’s 1980s scenes an accurate portrayal of “what our everyday life used to be like”.

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“Our life was full of what could easily be seen as harassment and sexism by today’s morals,” he says.

In 1986, Japan was basking in the glow of its post-war evolution into an economic superpower, with many workers fixated on success, no matter the hours required.

On Extremely Inappropriate, young recruits – a generation shaped by Japan’s “lost decades” of stagnation from the early 1990s – matter-of-factly clock off on time.

In the 80s, “I loved going to work, you know”, Maeda reminisced, chuckling. “The economy was still picking up and we were all-out at work.”

“I feel like there was more hope and excitement about the future in the 80s than there is now,” he said.

Extremely Inappropriate has received its share of criticism in the real world.

Some say concepts like feminism or discrimination based on appearance are oversimplified, and that political correctness is treated as little more than a shackle on free speech.

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Interspersed throughout the show are musical performances and jokey disclaimers excusing Ogawa’s gaffes and insults.

But beneath the levity is a serious message, says Takahiko Kageyama, a media studies professor at Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts.

“The creators obviously wanted us to reflect on the status quo of our society,” he says. “But if this intent had come off too straightforward or preachy, it would’ve just fallen flat.”

The show’s themes are “bold” given the sensitive landscape of Japan’s entertainment industry today, he says.

Allegations of workplace bullying have also disgraced the prestigious theatre troupe Takarazuka Revue.

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Isoyama says that making the show in parallel with these events had sometimes felt uncanny.

“With Johnny and Takarazuka, it was like facts far stranger than fiction were unfolding around us,” she says.

But “this made us feel that the timing of the release would be fitting, considering how the industry is changing, the way it should”.