Naomi Watanabe Is Perfectly Peculiar

With nine million followers on Instagram, comedian Naomi Watanabe is Japan’s most-followed personality for her Effortless Funnies and Magnetic Personality that transcends language barriers, cultural nuances, and the act of being self-deprecating. In all seriousness, she discusses why being Weird is her weapon

- Andrea Sim

What do you do when you’re riding the lift alone: check your messages, give your face the once over, pick your nose perhaps? Naomi Watanabe has a habit of making funny expressions, resuming poker face the fraction of a second the doors slide open to the next floor. Here speed is crucial. Imagine a Guinness World Records attempt at pulling the greatest number of faces in the shortest amount of time (this sub-category doesn’t exist, yet).

Seemingly unrelated, but equally unorthodox, she divulges that about “20 strands of hair as thick as the ones on her head” inhabit her chin. A beard so to speak — like that of a teenage boy’s in recent wake of puberty — that she enjoys growing out when she’s not working. Except, that one time when she did appear on TV with it, in a pre-conceived “game” with herself to see if and when someone would spot the stubble. To avoid getting foiled too easily, she had concealed her chin with her hands during close-ups.

In Watanabe’s world, stranger things are a way of being. Weird is not a dirty word, but a weapon to wield, both in creating comedy and carving out a one-of-a-kind identity.