Naomi Watanabe 直美渡辺
Naomi Watanabe is currently one of the most popular public figures in Japan. There she is the most followed celebrity on Instagram, and in 2018 she was one of TIME's "25 Most Influential People on the Internet"(Hou). She is a Japanese comedian (お笑い芸人) who rose to fame due to her celebrity impressions(ものまね) of people like Beyonce and Lady Gaga, receiving nicknames like "The Beyoncé of Japan". She has also acted in musicals and worked as a voice actor. However, she struggled a lot to get to where she is now.
She was born in Taiwan, and raised in Japan. Her parents divorced and she was primarily raised by her Taiwanese mother who was not fluent in Japanese, resulting in a “double-limited” challenge in which Naomi could speak neither Japanese nor Taiwanese fluently(Inagaki). Despite this Naomi always loved comedians and making people laugh so she attended a training school for comedians in Osaka at age 18(Inagaki).
At the start of her career due to her lack of fluency in Japanese, she often couldn't express herself properly and began to think becoming a comedian was impossible("渡辺直美は台湾"). It was only when a more senior comedian gave her advice to capitalize on her talents that she took a 3 month break to study dance and performance in New York, and came back prepared to do the impressions that launched her to fame("渡辺直美は台湾"). She mentions that growing up she did not face bullying for being Taiwanese but now due to her fame she is sometimes an online target for racism(Inagaki).
She is also a champion for body positivity, launching her own fashion line called Punyus with clothing of all sizes. She states, "In Japan, there are lots of curvy girls who want to enjoy fashion, but don’t know where to get it or how to get it. I think about those girls. I want to focus on doing a lot, and being inclusive"(Hou). Her large variety of talents and personality is what makes her so dearly beloved by many and she hopes to spread her message of positivity internationally in the future.
Place of Birth: Taipei, Taiwan (Inagaki)
Nationality: Japanese ("渡辺直美の国籍")
Background of Parents: Father is Japanese and Mother is Taiwanese
Languages Spoken: Japanese (fluent), Taiwanese (speaking low, understanding high), English (intermediate, simple daily conversation level) ("渡辺直美の国籍")
Profession: Comedian
Sentiment Data from Youtube
Comments from a video titled " Naomi Watanabe’s Guide to Glitter Eyes and Bold Lips | Beauty Secrets | Vogue "
Video Summary
Naomi Watanabe goes through her makeup routine on camera and recommends and provides tips on how to do her look, she speaks in Japanese and is given English subtitles. It also shows off her talent for make up despite the fact that she does most of her look using her fingers. The video is a good example of the humorous and fun personality that makes her so popular and it and has over 8 million views.
Data Collection Parameters
We collected a random sample of 58 comments with 3 or more likes. Comments were double counted if their contents fit into multiple categories. Due to the subjective nature of interpreting the comments there may be some discrepancies in the data. To see examples of comments that fit into a category, view the google sheet with extracted comments The example comments are listed under the graph and highlighted accordingly with the category on the left.
Data Analysis
In the sample collected there were no directly negative comments, however our sample size is rather small. One of the Japanese comments expressed pride for Japan, and a few mentioned Naomi Watanabe's international appeal, in the english comments mentions of her racial background were notably absent and many english comments expressed that they just discovered her. The lack of mention could be due to the fact that it was posted on Vouge's make up channel so subscribers watching only expect a make-up tutorial. It could also be because she speaks Japanese for the whole video so many of the english speakers likely just assume her background and have more opinions about her makeup and her personality.