10 Song Meanings Everyone Gets Wrong

It's no secret that there are a lot of people with dirty minds that populate the Internet. Rule 34 is most definitely a real thing, and chances are that a lot of songs have been taken out of context to be about something sexual in nature. This is NOT a new thing thanks to the Internet though. This has been going on since the dawn of time, and Turning Japanese is one of the most glaring examples of it.

From the minute that this song came out, people were automatically assuming that the Vapors were talking about something that was a little bit more NSFW than most other chart hits. Although the common belief is that the chorus line is a euphemism for masturbation, the band has always denied it. While it's easy to just shoot down the sexual suggestions in the lyrics though, we still don't have a clear explanation as to what any of this song is about.

Going through every line, you can definitely get themes about losing your identity and this man fawning over a girl in a picture, but that's about all you're going to get here. Almost to toy with us even further, the Vapors have also said that the whole song doesn't even have anything to do with Japan, despite using the Oriental style riff at the start of the song. At this point, you almost start to understand why people are going with the masturbation theory. Because that's the only way that this new wave classic is going to make any sort of sense.