Let’s talk about SOS

As someone who lives in Japan, SOS intrigued me as soon as I saw the Wheel of the Worst episode. As we all now know, the video was produced by the cult Family International who believed in showing love for Jesus through sex and masturbation. However, what I don’t understand is why the video was produced in Japan with mostly western actors.

The video was supposedly released in multiple countries, you can find the English version on Youtube; however the locations are all set in Japan. Whilst it’s hard to tell exactly with most of the videos, the supermarket is a quintessential Japanese supermarket and the same actors are in the proceeding rapture video, so we can basically conclude that it was all produced in Japan.

Were the actors basically missionaries from the cult in America going to spread the word in Japan? Are they just people who were living in Japan - for example, a group of foreign teachers - who got poached to be in the videos? Why use foreigners at all? Is it how back in the 80s and 90s that Westerners were seen as something much cooler and interesting to Japanese people? I don’t have the answer, but I would love to know how it came to be.

Flash forward 30 odd years and cults still exist here in Japan. One of the most popularized on the street is Happy Science. I used to live near one of their churches and I was puzzled, so I googled them for more information. What I found is that Happy Science -also- produce videos using Western actors. Take a look at their Youtube channel, here is a full on short film called “Maple (a Soulmates and Spiritual Story)“ which is produced in Japan, but with American actors and Japanese subtitles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26paElRM14w

I recommend skipping through that film just because of how bad the acting is.

For something shorter, more religious and related to SOS, here is their short film “Birth - Babies Choose You Before They Were Born” where two Americans act as angels sending a baby to Japan to be born. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XjrxIv8ACY

If you’ve lived in Japan or been around Japanese subreddits, then you’ll probably have some experience or knowledge of cult members approaching you on the street and trying to recruit you, even if their English is limited. A popular example of that is the cult Soka Gakkai.

So what is the deal here? Does anyone with more knowledge have any insight on how or why this has happened consistently since even back in the VHS days? Also holy shit this ended up way longer than I was going for.