Riding Together

There is a TV program called "Riding Together." It's popular among young Japanese, including junior high school students. I watched it for the first time today. The basic structure of the program is like this: a groups of young men and women (in their early 2os) ride a car together and take road trips in foreign countries. During a road trip, they are supposed to develop love interests within the group. If it turns out that a man and a woman are in love with each other, they will fly back to Japan as a happy couple. If a person falls in love with someone and is rejected by his or her love interest, that person too will have to fly back to Japan. Then, the remaining group members continue their road trip, as new group members are added to maintain the size of the group (6?). They have to continue to travel either until they find their love interests reciprocated or until they are rejected by their love interests.

I suspect that this TV program is part of banal nationalism. While the program takes place in foreign countries, the car they ride is "Japan." While they travel among foreign peoples, they--Japanese--are absorbed in themselves without much contact with the world outside of their car. So, this TV program may reinforce among viewers the feeling that "only Japanese can understand each other"...