Dave Spector - Biography

Dave Spector is a gaijin tarento (foreign TV personality) in Japan.

Spector, a Jewish American, was born in Chicago, Illinois. He studied abroad at Sophia University in 1972. He has lived in Japan since 1983. He appears regularly as a commentator on several different Japanese television programmes (such as Sunday Japon, Tokudane, Miyane-ya, Wide Scramble, Yajiuma Plus 'Soko made itte, iinkai'). He writes columns for Shukan Bunshun magazine and Tokyo Sports Shimbun and has written several books.

He speaks fluent Japanese. He states that he became a TV celebrity when he was to be cast in a one time, non-speaking role on a show, but protested in Japanese about the way he was to be used. He believes his ability to stand up for himself impressed the producers enough to make him a regular speaking “talent”. In a documentary titled, The Japanese Version, he points out the novelty of foreigners to Japanese in Japan, likening the relationship to a panda (the foreigner) and an animal watcher at a zoo (the Japanese). The meaning of his analogy is that he believes the Japanese think foreigners are cute and out of the ordinary and will toss them treats if they do something cute, but that's as far as they want to be involved. Spector goes on to say this about his involvement in the Japanese “tarento” scene:

Making foreigners cuter takes away the threat of foreigners being more powerful, or having more know-how, or more sophistication. So definitely, they use that in a way to make themselves more comfortable. So I've done things on Japanese TV that are totally silly, or ridiculous. I mean like jumping rope with French poodles. Doing things like the lowest Bozo, circus kind of stuff. But it doesn't bother me at all. A lot of times the foreigners on TV, models and what-not, are compared to pandas. They use that term here--pandas-- because they're cuddly, you can go and have fun with them, and throw a marshmallow and that's about it. And you don't get involved any more deeper than that. But...since I'm making half a million dollars a year, I'm very happy to be a panda. I'd be a much lower animal. I'd be like a sloth, or something, or a hedgehog, you know, for that money. So it doesn't bother me at all.

In the United States, Spector has appeared on The Tonight Show and Iron Chef, among other programs.

In 1989, Spector told the Los Angeles times: "A lot of the Americans who come here really didn't do anything back home at all. Nothing. They worked at a Fava shoe store if they were lucky. But I was trailblazing away at the very moment I was sent over here. I had no intention of rooting myself here. I was totally set on making it in Los Angeles, in the television industry."

He was subsequently hired by NBC to provide some commentary for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan and has appeared regularly on Japanese TV since then, as many as 8 or 9 times each week.

Spector also scouts other non-Japanese talent for the Japanese media such as fitness guru Billy Blanks who currently enjoys success in Japan through the sale of his videos.

External links

• Transcript of The Japanese Version can be found at the Center for New American Media website
• Dave Spector: in the public eye at Japan Today
• Corkill, Edan, "Spontaneous Japanese TV keeps Dave Spector on his toes", Japan Times, August 4, 2009, p. 13.