Turning Japanese — The Vapors

JUL 01 1980 · 12:00

Turning Japanese — The Vapors (1980) Director: Russell Mulcahy Era: UK New Wave Breakthrough (1980) - The year British new wave crossed into mainstream commercial territory, riding post-punk energy into pop chart success and early promotional video culture. Exceptional curatorial value as a confirmed Russell Mulcahy-directed artifact from his pre-MTV breakthrough period, offering a rare primary source for studying early UK new wave promo aesthetics, orientalist visual tropes in popular music, and the editorial kinetics that would define the dominant 1980s music video language. The video's documented production context, chart success, and ongoing critical relevance as an Orientalism case study make it a Tier 1 archival priority. Context: Released 25 January 1980 on United Artists Records, 'Turning Japanese' arrived at a pivotal moment in British pop when new wave acts were converting pub-rock credibility into chart success. The Vapors were managed by John Weller and Bruce Foxton of The Jam, situating them within the mod-revival and post-punk Guildford scene. The song's orientalist aesthetic — which the video amplifies through set, costume, and prop design — reflected a widespread early-1980s Western pop fascination with Japan as a cultural 'other,' a phenomenon also visible in contemporaries like Duran Duran and the broader New Romantic movement. The video's theatrical staging of 'Japaneseness' via tatami mats, shoji screens, geisha imagery, and kendo has since been critically examined as a document of Orientalism in popular music. The track reached #3 in the UK and #36 in the US, making it one of the era's defining transatlantic new wave crossover records. Director notes: Mulcahy directed 'Turning Japanese' in 1980 while working through Jon Roseman Productions International in the UK. The video deploys orientalist set design — tatami mats, shoji screens, a geisha figure, and a kendo practitioner — to visually reinforce the song's exotic lyrical conceit. This was among his early UK commissions, made at a period when he was establishing the kinetic, theatrically-staged promo aesthetic he would become famous for. The video's fast editorial tempo (avg. shot length 2.46s, 93 scene changes) is consistent with Mulcahy's documented stylistic preference for rapid intercutting and dynamic camera movement. IMDB, Wikipedia, and IMVDb all confirm directorial credit.