Foreigner accused of shoplifting tea in Japan, label to blame 【Why Does Engrish Happen in Japan?】

It’s often said that freedom isn’t free. In Japan, Free Tea isn’t either.

As we’ve seen before, you can’t always take Japan’s English signage and labeling at face-value. When Engrish rears its head, the results often end up as a mix of baffling and comical, but Twitter user @domoboku recently witnessed some odd use of the English language touch off a fierce argument inside a Japanese convenience store.

@domoboku, who’s Japanese himself, stepped into the store in the afternoon when a non-Japanese Asian had been openly drinking from a bottle of tea he’d grabbed from the shelf without paying for it. Engaged in a heated verbal disagreement with the store clerk, the Asian man shouted “What did I do that was wrong?”

Curious as to what room there could be for debate in what seemed like a clear-cut case of shoplifting, @domoboku took a look at the exact type of tea the man had been helping himself too, and suddenly understood what had caused the misunderstanding.

アジア系の外国人が白昼堂々ドリンクを万引きにしててコンビニ騒然。店員と喧嘩。「何がいけないんだ」と叫ぶ外国人。 様子が変だから間に入って事情を聞いた。 そしたら彼もコンビニも悪くなかった。悪いのはデザインだ。 https://t.co/KAC2PGKlDQ

—
どーも僕です。（どもぼく） (@domoboku) October 28, 2016

Splashed across the bottle’s label in large, English text were the words Free Tea, identifying this as a brand produced and distributed by Japanese beverage company Pokka Sapporo.

So how did the drink end up with this unorthodox name? Well, its big selling point is that it contains GABA extract. Pokka Sapporo claims that this gives the tea relaxing properties, and bills Free Tea as “The beverage encouraging that people be free from a stress-filled society,” using the Japanese word kaihou (meaning “free/liberate” and written 解放 in kanji characters) in its advertising.

Unfortunately, in English simply tossing the word “free” in front of an inanimate object generally implies not that it’s liberated, but that it’s complimentary. “It’s written right there on the label, so let me have it!” the man insisted. After an explanation that “Free Tea” was simply the brand name, he changed his stance to “Then the store should change the label!”

外国人もしばらく「書いてあるんだからよこせ」的な論調で、アホな表記を丁寧に説明したら「よこせないなら、せめて表記を変えろ」と。 店員も仕入れた商品に書いてあるだけだから訂正しようもないし万引き未遂されるし、双方被害者という構図。 二人とも振り上げた拳のやり場が無くて気まずかった。

—
どーも僕です。（どもぼく） (@domoboku) October 28, 2016

Of course, as @domoboku points out, the store really isn’t in a position, or even legally allowed, to go changing product labels on items its bought from a distributor. “This tea ended up causing a stressful problem for both a traveler who came all the way to Japan and an honest shopkeeper,” he mused. “How ironic that it’s supposed to be ‘The beverage encouraging that people be free from a stress-filled society.’”

わざわざ日本に来てくれた観光客と善良な店員を、ストレスまみれの抗争状態に追い込んだ商品。 そのキャッチコピーが「ストレス社会解放応援飲料」である皮肉。 https://t.co/nvVk6CQhQU

—
どーも僕です。（どもぼく） (@domoboku) October 28, 2016

Language barriers and Engrish aside, though, the slot the bottles of Free Tea occupy on the shelf is pretty clearly marked with a price of 130 yen (US$1.26), so the customer might want to pay a little more attention to his surroundings in the future. After all, convenience stores aren’t generally too keen on customers just helping themselves to a refreshing drink without paying, unless maybe said customer is the Dalai Lama.

Source: Jin
Featured image: Twitter/@domoboku
Insert images: Pokka Sapporo

Credit: