JAPAN: AMERICAN FOOTBALL - FORMER NFL PLAYER BOB SAPP BECOMES CULT FIGURE IN JAPAN.

Record ID: 632218

  • Title: JAPAN: AMERICAN FOOTBALL - FORMER NFL PLAYER BOB SAPP BECOMES CULT FIGURE IN JAPAN.
  • Date: 8th July 2003
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (RECENT)(REUTERS) MAN BROWSING THROUGH BOB SAPP T-SHIRTS MUG CUP CUSHION BOB SAPP DOLL VARIOUS OF BOB SAPP GOODS
  • Embargoed: 23rd July 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TOKYO, JAPAN
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Entertainment,General,People,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA7ZY4N6F7FQVV8A9TGQA2AA1OA
  • Story Text: In less than a year, Bob Sapp has gone from NFL wash-up in America to a marketing tsunami in Japan where he appears daily on TV and his image as a tough-but-tender kickboxer sells everything from candy to DVD players.
    Everyone in Japan knows Bob Sapp. And it's no surprise because the martial arts giant with a scary scowl and thunderous laugh appears on television everyday -- either on comedy programmes or commercials advertising everything from electrical appliances to candy.
    Wherever the 6-foot-7-inch (200 centimetres), 375-pound (170 kilogrammes) goes, crowds gather to wave and giggle at the hulking former football player-turned fighter.
    "I like him because he is so big, macho and black and gentle," said Juni Miyazaki, a 17-year-old student who came to a TV station in Tokyo where Sapp was making a live appearance.
    "I like everything about him, he's great," added Emi Onishi, 18.
    Sapp's road to gladiatorial celebrity began in pro wrestling after he was dropped by the National Football League's Minnesota Vikings and Oakland Raiders.
    Moving on to the now-defunct WCW, Sapp began developing a persona known as "The Beast," a brutish alter-ego to the genial, real-life Sapp, whose true love is his pet cat.
    He arrived in Japan in 2001 to compete in K1, a mixed martial arts sport combining elements of karate and kickboxing which draws huge crowds.
    Sapp, who clearly enjoys the limelight, believes his popularity started when he won an early match with a devastating knockout but then walked over to make sure that his opponent was OK before celebrating.
    His tough-but-tender image has made him a star with Japanese fans and transformed the genial giant into a TV staple and marketing miracle.
    The 28 year-old Sapp has released a rap CD in Japan and he has his a store which sells Sapp paraphernalia ranging from T-shirts, cushions to snacks. He has made more than 200 TV appearances and has had at least three biographies published.
    But his success in the ring has been mixed with a fighting style that favors devastating haymakers -- pure power over sweet science. In his last match on March 30, Mirko Cro Cop, a high-kicking Croatian, knocked Sapp out in the first round.
    Sapp is readying a comeback in time for the K1 Grand Prix, a big-money championship in December in Tokyo, and backers say his landslide popularity seems unstoppable.
    "You don't have to speak or know a language in order to be seen, from what I see is a universal language, the universal language of laughter and fear, those are two of them, and that is what I portray," says Sapp, who speaks very little Japanese, of the secret to his success in a land where most people do not understand English.
    "What happens is that if popularity in television goes down, then I have more time for fighting and because I am a newcomer and I have been doing this for a short amount of time, I get better at fighting so I become a better fighter, and that makes my popularity as a fighter go back up and then the programmes want you back on there, so that means alot of people watch you so you have this see-saw effect, which is one of the things of the 'Beast phenomenon' or 'Beast paradox', so really, no matter what I do I will always be on television or will be performing at my best at all times. It can be a bit tiring," he added.
    His popularity has even penetrated the staid corridors of Japan's Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry.
    The ministry has tapped Sapp to appear in advertisements for its "Dream Gate" project aimed at nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit in a land where fear of failure has been blamed for keeping people from starting their own venture businesses.
    Atsuko Narahara, Editor in Chief of magazine "Tokyo A Week", which has done features on Sapp's eating habits and has recently published a trivia book on the comedian-fighter, says he was just the sort of character Japan needed.
    "The general atmosphere in Japan was very gloomy (when he first appeared) and everyone was waiting for a character like Bob Sapp to appear, a sort of big hero. If you take a look at number of commercials he appears in you'll see that he is being used to appeal to everyone from housewives to small children, adolescents -- there is noone else like him now in Japan," she added.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Audio restrictions: This clip's Audio includes copyrighted material. User is responsible for obtaining additional clearances before publishing the audio contained in this clip.
Register