‘It’s Not Even Inappropriate!’ Generation Gap! The “Showa Period” controversy rages between the young and the middle-aged.

A “power-harassing old man” from the Showa era travels back in time to the Reiwa era and faces a myriad of generation gaps in this catchy storyline in the much-talked-about drama “Inappropriate Enough! (TBS).

The drama is currently experiencing a “Showa-era retro boom” among Generation Z who do not know what happened back then. This drama is riding on such a trend, but the real Showa generation seems to have nostalgic but mixed feelings about that era.

Ichiro Ogawa, a junior high school teacher played by Sadawo Abe, is a typical Showa-era man with the nickname “Ogawa of Hell. He smokes wherever he goes, sexually harasses his female colleagues, and butt-bats his way through the baseball team.

In order to depict such Showa manners, which have long since become outdated in Reiwa’s modern era, the following message is deliberately displayed: “This work contains inappropriate dialogue and smoking scenes, but in light of the nature of this drama, which depicts the transition of language, culture, and customs over time, we have dared to use expressions from the year 1986 for the broadcast. However, in view of the nature of this drama, which depicts the language expressions and changes in culture and customs over time, the expressions used in 1986 will be used.

The show is also well received for its use of Showa-era buzzwords such as “nyan-nyan” and “chome-chome,” as well as for its use of small Showa-era jokes, such as high school girls getting excited about the KK duo. In addition, Ichiro peels off Reiwa’s poster of Kyoko Koizumi, who is still active today, and it connects to a poster of Reiwa as she was in 1986, which is an interesting device related to time slips.

Moreover, sociologists Sakae (Yō Yoshida) and Kiyoshi (Sakamoto Aito), who are steeped in Reiwa’s sense of the times, slip back in time from the present to 1986, comically satirizing both the Showa era and Reiwa’s era.

Although there are minor discrepancies in the depiction of the time period (for example, Ichiro cherishes a VHS video of his daughter Junko’s childhood, but it is unnatural for a family like Ichiro’s to have a VHS released in 1976 in the 1970s, when Junko was still a child), the fashion of 1986 is not depicted in the drama. The fashion of 1986 in the drama seems retro and rather vivid from a modern perspective.

Yuumi Kawai, who plays Junko, Ichiro’s only daughter, is a cute high school student with an ’80s-style hairstyle, a refreshing change from her previous image. Her long-skirted sailor suit, which is reminiscent of the skit of a street gangster, suits her well, and it is no wonder that Kiyoshi, who comes from Reiwa, falls in love with her.

After 40 years, the culture of the ’80s is being revived as a retro hobby in the Reiwa era. First of all, cameras. The “Sharundesu,” or disposable cameras that appeared in the Ogawa family in 1986 are used by young people as a hobby item that is different from everyday use because they are easy to use and can take pictures with unique image quality that cannot be taken with a smartphone. The same is true of film cameras, which are accepted by young people because of their retro design and the analog nature of their inability to be re-shot. The number of young idols and celebrities who use film cameras is increasing, and they seem to match the sensibilities of today’s youth, who seek to “look good” on film.

In the music world, there was the city pop boom of the 1980s. Songs such as Mariya Takeuchi’s “Plastic Love,” Miki Matsubara’s “Midnight Door – stay with me,” and Yasuha’s “Friday Chinatown” have been covered overseas, and the boom has returned in Japan through video sites. It has become an established genre in the music scene over the past few years. This drama is likely to be a good work that will ride the trend of reevaluating the ’80s culture.

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However, although the drama is mild and comical, it is also true that in the realistic ’80s, values that are unthinkable today were prevalent.

Corporal punishment by teachers was commonplace, and school violence by students was commonplace. The Equal Employment Opportunity Law had just come into effect in 1986, and the concept of “sexual harassment,” which later became a popular term in 1989, did not take root until the early Heisei era. At that time, the concepts of overwork and power harassment did not even exist. Ichiro’s behavior can be forgiven because it is a drama, but if such a middle-aged man were to appear in the real world today, he would surely cause a firestorm (Ichiro’s smoking on the bus in the drama was also exposed on social media, causing a firestorm).

Furthermore, in February of 1986, a bullying suicide at Nakano Fujimi Junior High School in Tokyo became a social problem. School in the Showa period was not all about the heady days of youth that Kiyoshi yearns for in the drama.

Therefore, there seems to be a generation gap between the middle-aged and older generation who know those days and the young people who were not yet born. Recently, young influencers who love Showa-era culture have been active mainly on social networking services, and one of their posts reflects this gap.

One influencer who was born in ’00 said, “I have never lived through the Showa period. But I love everything about those days on a cellular level. I get goosebumps. I love it,” she posted on X. This post was supposed to be casual,

People who were born in Reiwa’s good era glorify the Showa era and say, “It’s great,” which seems like a compliment, but in fact, it is a superior attitude.

Air pollution and male chauvinism were terrible in those days. If you write “everything,” you are also accepting those things. Don’t say “everything” so cavalierly.

I think what you like is a vague “Showa-era atmosphere,” not the real Showa.

The response was a rebellious one, “Of course, that kind of attitude is exactly what the old people want.

Of course, there were also many defensive posts, such as “That kind of attitude is the behavior of old people,” but there were also some middle-aged and older people who wanted to warn young people that “the real Showa is not that beautiful.

However, the hands of the clock cannot be turned back. Even if only superficially, young and old should be able to look back fondly on the “good old Showa period” without falling out with each other.