The Vapors’ “Turning Japanese” Lyrics Meaning
This track is popularly believed to be about “playing with oneself”, with the phrase turning Japanese reportedly being an allusion to such. That is, many listeners have concluded that the singer is pleasing himself. He is doing so presumably in a jail cell, to pictures of his girlfriend. And there is ample evidence to support such a theory, if a person wants to interpret the song in that fashion.
However its writer, The Vapors’ Dave Fenton, went on to discredit this idea as an American misinterpretation of the lyrics. Rather the singer has lost his girlfriend and is suffering as a result. So viewed from that perspective, the aforementioned pic he has of her serves as the medium which most-blatantly conjures feelings of missing her.
The singer appears to be in a mental prison, i.e. feeling antisocial or something of the sort due to his overall depression. That would also likely explain why he called “everyone around” him “a total stranger”, as in he has a general reluctance towards socializing given his present state.
Indeed Fenton has also stated that the narrator is “going slowly crazy”. So statements such as the aforementioned can actually be allusions to his madness.
Wrapping it all up…
So conclusively this track has been labeled in different ways, even as being racist. However, as with the self-gratification theory, Fenton debunked this idea also. According to him, he could have basically named it after any nationality – so long as it sounded cool. He also went on to explain what the phrase turning Japanese really represents. According to Fenton, it “is all the clichés about angst and youth and turning into something you didn’t expect to”.
Or as stated above, dude is going mad due to missing his sweetheart. So at the end of the day, the general understanding is that, no matter which way a listener may decide to interpret “Turning Japanese”, the narrator of the song is left in some type of unfavorable state due to the absence of the woman he loves.
Facts about “Turning Japanese”
This is The Vapors’ signature song. It was released on 25 January 1980 and appeared, via United Artists, on their first album, “New Clear Days”.
This song was written by The Vapors’ lead singer, David Fenton. And the song was produced by one of their regular collaborators, Vic Coppersmith-Heaven.
“Turning Japanese” appeared on the Billboard Hot 100, reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart. It also topped the Kent Music Report is Australia.
Another reason this song was logically called “Turning Japanese” is because it uses what is referred to as the “Oriental riff”. This riff (the Oriental riff) is designed to imitate a generic East Asian sound.
Amongst the pop media appearances “Turning Japanese” has made is being featured on the soundtrack of the Cameron Diaz film “Charlie’s Angels” (2000).
The lyric is “myself” not “my cell”. There is no jail cell in this song