🙄
"Yeah, that’s a myth.
The song “Turning Japanese” by The Vapors (1980) has often been rumored to be a metaphor for masturbation, but the band has repeatedly said that isn’t true. The lyrics are about feelings of alienation, unrequited love, and emotional frustration, not a sexual euphemism. The phrase “turning Japanese” was intended as a quirky expression of feeling strange or transformed, not a hidden code.
The masturbation interpretation mostly came from listeners and the press after the song’s release, probably because of how cryptic the lyrics are. But according to the songwriter, it was never written with that meaning."
Huh, perhaps this song is now even more appropriate than I thought.