Japanese are often stereotyped (and tend to stereotype themselves) as bad communicators — or just plain silent. Men, especially, are praised for being miserly with words, though their wives may long for something more than the furo, meshi, neru (bath, food and sleep) that is said to be the sum total of their at-home conversation. Also, the local feminine ideal is the quietly demure, not the vocally demonstrative.
The reality, as anyone who ever tuned into a tarento- (TV personality) crowded variety show knows, is more complex. With 20 or more tarento competing for precious air time, the standouts tend to be agile and inventive talkers — or motor-mouthed. The tongue-tied, minus outstanding physical or other attributes, are usually mocked or ignored. Even D-cup cuties need to turn a phrase, even a deliberately idiotic one, if they want a career of any duration.
Hideyuki Hirayama's "Shaberedomo, Shaberedomo (Talk, Talk, Talk)" shows that the verbal bar for rakugoka (comic storytellers) is higher than the Japanese show-business norm. Unlike many TV comics who use everything and anything for laughs — from gross physical humor to schoolyard bullying — traditional rakugoka have to be verbal virtuosos, playing several roles with no props but a folding fan, while putting across centuries-old stories that many in the audience know by heart.