When Hollywood star Mischa Barton was last in Japan in 2008, she appeared in a Magician Zero comedy skit from Japanese TV show SMAPxSMAP.

Mischa Barton in Japan in Magician Zero skit

Hollywood stars Cameron Diaz and Jude Law were in Tokyo in 2007 to promote their movie “The Holiday.”  They also made an appearance on Bistro SMAP with the lads from SMAP to promote their movie.

Jude Law and Cameron Diaz on SMAPxSMAP

Hollywood funnyman Ben Stiller appeared several years ago on a Japanese TV commercial for Kirin’s ChuHai drink filled with cheerleaders and football players.

Ben Stiller Kirin Chu Hi Japanese TV commercial

Richard Gere was another Hollywood celeb who ended up appearing with the SMAP boys on their hit TV variety show SMAPxSMAP.  Richard as always was a good sport on the section Bistro SMAP

Richard Gere in Japan on Bistro SMAP part 1
http://www.dailymotion.com/videox61csz

Richard Gere in Japan on Bistro SMAP part 2
http://www.dailymotion.com/videox61c9h

After the earthquake and tsunami last year, most TV broadcasters pulled TV commercials as a sign of respect for the victims and aired Public Service announcements (PSAs) like this one about being nice to your friends.

However, if you weren’t one of the gaijin that left Japan “the flyjin”, and was stuck at home with little to do except watch TV, you soon got sick of the PSAs and started to think about how entertaining most Japanese TV commercials really are.

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One way for Japanese folks learning English to practice telling stories.  In this case, Japanese lady Mika retells Hollywood movies Spiderman, Inception and Titanic.

Though English is not her native language, she explains the movies Spiderman, Inception and Titanic in simple English (and within 2 minutes!)

Spiderman in 2 minutes

Titanic in 2 minutes

Inception in 2 minutes

Astro boy (also called Atom アトム in Japan)  is the 2009 animated movie loosely based on the long running Japanese manga and anime  series 鉄腕アトム of the same name by Osamu Tezuka 手塚 治虫 .

The 2009 Hollywood film featured the voices of Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, Matt Lucas, Bill Nighy, Donald Sutherland, Moises Arias, Charlize Theron and Nicolas Cage.

Japanese Astro boy trailer

Japanese TV coverage of the film

Like other Hollywood actors, Mel Gibson did some Japanese TV commercials in his younger days.  He starred in a series of commercials promoting Asahi Beer in the 1980s.

Mel Gibsons 1980s Asahi Beer TV commercials

From 2007-2009 Hollywood actress Cameron Diaz was the face of Japanese  mobile service provider Softbank. Her image was practically everywhere on billboards and on television commercials for Softbank phones.

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Hollywood actor Matt Damon visited Japan in 2007 and found himself on Fuji TV’s SMAPxSMAP variety show.  He joined the SMAP boys on the Bistro SMAP section of the show. See what they cooked up for him.

Matt Damon in Japan on Bistro SMAP 2007