ET 2

Japanese TV personality Yuko Ito has been working in the entertainment industry for almost 20 years now. Having been at turns a swimsuit model, actress, and pitchwoman for Sapporo Beer, Nissan, and telecommunications provider NTT, we imagine she’s run into more than a few disingenuous showbiz types while paying her dues and building a career for herself.

Now, it looks like she’s done putting up with their two-faced double-talk, assuming she can actually understand the English on the T-shirt she wore during a recent TV appearance, which implored those watching, “Protect me from all your bullshit.”

Ito’s bold wardrobe choice was spotted by viewers watching a recent episode of Yasai no Jikan (“Vegetable Time”), a weekly gardening show from public broadcaster (and zealous fee-collector) NHK. Yasai no Jikan airs Mondays at 9:30 p.m. on NHK’s E Tele educational channel.

Scholars tend to only be experts in their particular fields, however. For example, I can handle myself reasonably well in Japanese, but I’ve got no idea what you should do to make your roses look their best. Likewise, Yasai no Jikan’s producers weren’t chosen for their linguistic or translation skills, as none of them thought to suggest Ito might want to change into a different top, seen here in a photo shared by Tokyo Desu.

Over the years, Japan has acquired a pretty deserved reputation for its shaky command and comically inappropriate use of English on clothing. It’s entirely possible Ito just thinks English lettering looks cool and didn’t even bother to check the meaning, sort of like when people in the U.S. wear silkscreen shirts covered with Japanese text without realizing that it’s all printed backwards.

But we can’t completely write off the possibility that Ito did know what her shirt said. After all, even beginners know that proper fertilizer use is an important part of gardening, and maybe the fashion-conscious actress simply wanted to make doubly sure none of the other guests accidentally splattered her with manure.

This isn’t the only time Ito has been seen with the outspoken shirt, either. Here she is sporting it again, and since it’s paired with different pants, we’re guessing the photo was taken on a different day.

With such a friendly look in her eyes, it’s kind of hard to believe she’d knowingly plaster such an aggressive greeting across her chest. Really, with a smile like that, we’d at least expect her to include her companion in the request, and ask that you “protect us from all your bullshit.”

Then again, there’s also this candid shot. Is Ito’s strained expression the result of a physically tiring day on set, or has she simply exhausted all of her patience?

▼ Seriously, ALL OF IT.

Either way, it’d probably be best to give her a wide berth.

Top image: Twitter
Insert images: Twitter (1, 2, 3)