Tommy Lee Jones is BOSS (Natsukashii Series)

In Japan, there is a popular canned coffee brand made by Suntory called BOSS.

You can get it in vending machines and convenience stores pretty much everywhere - the former will dispense both hot and cold versions.

In the same unlikely way that Bill Murray was the (fictional) ambassador for Suntory's Hibiki Whiskey, Tommy Lee Jones is the (all too real) face of Suntory's BOSS Coffee.

Apparently, these are known as japanders.

I've been to Japan three times now, and it's got to the point where it doesn't feel like I've arrived properly if I don't catch a glimpse of his craggy features on a billboard somewhere.

I'd be in a village on the outskirts of Osaka, where life seems as rural as can be, and I'd suddenly turn the corner, and there he would be - on a vending machine, looking stalwart and true.

In his wonderful book Sushi and Beyond, the author Michael Booth even mentions Mr Jones in a description of Tokyo:

"Emil clung to my thigh for the first few minutes until it became apparent that the crowd was remarkably well-ordered, its streams of commuters, shoppers and fun-seekers avoiding each other through the use of some kind of sonar, flowing in calm streams towards their destinations. Meanwhile, above us, a cliff face of liquid crystal broadcast the incongrous face of Tommy Lee Jones enjoying a canned coffee drink in alarmingly grizzled detail".

And back in England, whenever we see TLJ on the telly, my husband and I will sigh and say "Aww, that takes us back to Japan".

I don't know if he's still used to advertise Boss coffee, but I do hope so, and I'm looking forward to finding out.


Yes, there's a series of commercials too - 19 in total:

NOTE: I will be writing a few posts about Japan over the next month or so. I've called it the Natsukashii Series, because natsukashii is a Japanese adjective to describe something that triggers a fond memory - it's explained much better here.