Over the years, many famous actors and actresses from the west have appeared in Japanese TV commercials. It used to be that they could do these kinds of jobs, and take the money and run and their fans in the west wouldn't know about it.
James Colburn appeared in many cigarette commercials in Japan
But, now with the advent of the Internets, they can't get away with that anymore.
Now, they had better do commercials that, if someone back home does see them, they won't be too embarrassed nor will the commercials hurt their "coolness factor" nor their credibility.
Nicholas Cage did a bunch of those of those. He was in a series of commercials for pachinko (a kind of Japanese pinball gambling machine).
Enjoy!:
