{"id":12101,"date":"2014-01-24T07:24:18","date_gmt":"2014-01-24T17:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12101"},"modified":"2014-01-28T10:17:15","modified_gmt":"2014-01-28T20:17:15","slug":"my-japan-times-just-be-cause-column-72-dont-let-ana-off-the-hook-for-that-offensive-ad-jan-25-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12101","title":{"rendered":"My Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Column 72: “Don’t let ANA off the hook for that offensive ad”, Jan 25, 2014, “Director’s Cut”"},"content":{"rendered":"

eBooks, Books, and more from ARUDOU Debito (click on icon):
\n\"Guidebookcover.jpg\"<\/a>\"japaneseonlyebookcovertext\"<\/a>\"Handbook<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\"<\/a>\"sourstrawberriesavatar\"<\/a>\"debitopodcastthumb\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>
\nUPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito
\nDEBITO.ORG PODCASTS on iTunes, subscribe free
\n“LIKE” US on Facebook at http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/debitoorg<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.facebook.com\/handbookimmigrants<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JapaneseOnlyTheBook<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BookInAppropriate<\/a>
\nIf you like what you read and discuss on Debito.org, please consider helping us stop hackers and defray maintenance costs with a little Paypal donation:<\/p>\n


\n
\n
\n\"\"<\/form>\n

Thanks for your support!<\/i><\/p>\n

Hi Blog. Only a few days into the case of racialized advertisement from ANA<\/a>, I got tapped by the Japan Times to cover it. Debito.org Readers and Facebook Friends certainly gave me plenty of food for thought, so thank you all very much. Here’s my more polished opinion on it, which stayed the number one article on the JT Online for two full days! What follows is the “Director’s Cut” with excised paragraphs and links to sources. Thanks as always for reading and commenting to Debito.org. Arudou Debito<\/p>\n

JUST BE CAUSE<\/strong>
\n\"justbecauseicon.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ISSUES | JUST BE CAUSE<\/strong>
\n Don\u2019t let ANA off the hook for that offensive ad<\/strong>
\n BY \u00a0ARUDOU Debito<\/strong>
\nThe Japan Times, JAN 24, 2014, Column 72 for The Community Pages<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2014\/01\/24\/issues\/dont-let-ana-off-the-hook-for-that-offensive-ad\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Making headlines recently has been a commercial by ANA, one of Japan\u2019s flagship airlines.\u00a0 Released last Saturday, its 30-second spot shows two Asian men (one a comedian named Bakarizumu, but let\u2019s call them A and B) standing at an airport window speaking English with Japanese subtitles.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(See the ad at debito.org\/ANAHanedaAd2014.mp4<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Looking out at the jets, A says, \u201cHaneda Airport has more international flights nowadays.\u201d\u00a0 B replies, \u201cFinally.\u201d\u00a0 Then their exchange goes, \u201cNext stop, Vancouver.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cNext stop, Hanoi.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cExciting, isn\u2019t it?\u201d\u00a0 Then B says, rather oddly, \u201cYou want a hug?\u201d\u00a0 When A only gives him a nonplussed look, B continues, \u201cSuch a Japanese reaction.\u201d\u00a0 When A explains, \u201cBut I am Japanese,\u201d B counters, \u201cI see.\u00a0 Let\u2019s change the image of Japanese people.\u201d And A, smiling broadly, agrees to it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alright so far.\u00a0 Except that, as you can see in the picture below, A is now wearing a strapped-on long nose and a big blond wig.\u00a0 Off they fly to their destinations.<\/em><\/strong>
\n\"ANAHanedabignose\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This has occasioned considerable debate and media coverage.\u00a0 Many commenters in the English-language online forums have called this advertisement \u201cracist\u201d (one even said \u201cDebito bait\u201d; I\u2019m chuffed), and have made motions to take their business elsewhere.\u00a0 Others have said the advertisement isn\u2019t racist, just lame.\u00a0 A few managed to find a deep pocket of latent irony, saying it\u2019s actually poking fun at the Japanese people and their insular attitudes.\u00a0 Meanwhile, within Japanese-language forums, according to a Yahoo Japan poll, 82% of respondents see no problem with it.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"ANAYahooJapansurvey2014\"<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/polls.dailynews.yahoo.co.jp\/other\/10721\/result<\/a> <\/i>
\nhttp:\/\/headlines.yahoo.co.jp\/hl?a=20140120-00000038-jij_afp-bus_all<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

(NB: \u00a0Note\u00a0look how the question is worded. It introduces the issue by saying that a comedian (Bakarizumu) performed the act (read: it’s a joke!), and says that the complaints came “from foreigners” (read: not from Japanese) of “racial discrimination” (read: misleading representation of the issue). So we’ve set up the question as “we joking Japanese” vs “those kvetching foreigners” “taking a madcap jape” too seriously, and bingo, you get a vast majority of people wondering what the problem is.)<\/em><\/p>\n

It probably comes as no surprise to you that JBC objects to this ad.\u00a0 If ANA had really wanted to \u201cchange the image of Japan,\u201d it should have avoided racializing their product.\u00a0 Instead, it\u2019s just business as usual.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Consider some other racist marketing strategies from not so long ago (visuals and reports archived at debito.org\/?p=12077<\/a>):<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year, Toshiba marketed a bread maker with an obnoxiously overexuberant Japanese girl speaking katakana Japanese, wearing a blond wig and a big nose. \u00a0(Ad archived at debito.org\/Toshibasuipanda.mp4<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"toshiba2013suipanda1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2010, Nagasaki Prefecture promoted its \u201cforeign\u201d buildings by showing Japanese tourists wearing\u2014you guessed it\u2014blond wigs and big noses.\u00a0 (Ad archived at debito.org\/?p=7523<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong>
\n\"nagasakitabinetto2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2005, Mandom sold men\u2019s cosmetics with a Rasta-man motif, juxtaposing black people with a chimpanzee. \u00a0(Ad archived at debito.org\/mandomproject.html<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong>
\n\"MandomAd2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dare I mention the resurrection of book \u201cLittle Black Sambo\u201d in 2005, which inspired overtly racist nursery-school songs in Saitama about black butts?\u00a0 (See Matthew Chozick, \u201cSambo racism row reignites over kids\u2019 play<\/a>,\u201d Zeit Gist, April 13, 2010.)<\/em><\/strong>
\n\"Sambooriginal\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And how about the Choya plum sak\u00e9 commercials in 2008<\/a>, featuring three girls (two Caucasian, one Japanese), the latter sporting a big plastic nose and stick-on paper blue eyes?\u00a0 Although most of these ads were soon pulled after complaints, you can still go to Amazon Japan or Tokyu Hands and buy your own \u201cgaijin\u201d stick-on blue eyes and nose (with the caption \u201cHar\u014d Gaijin-San\u201d)<\/a> to sport at parties!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Har har.\u00a0 Can\u2019t you see it\u2019s all just a joke, imbued with a deep sense of irony subversively directed at Japanese people?\u00a0 Except that, as I\u2019ve pointed out in JBCs passim, irony as humor is not one of Japan\u2019s strong suits.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Moreover, remember when McDonald\u2019s Japan was using a nerdy white guy to hawk newfangled burgers?\u00a0 JBC argued (\u201cMeet Mr. James, Gaijin Clown<\/a>,\u201d Sept. 1, 2009) that stereotyping of this nature only works as humor if, among other things, there is a \u201cswitch test\u201d \u2013 i.e., everyone is fair game for parody.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But in Japan it\u2019s not fair game.\u00a0 Japanese society and media takes quick umbrage to being lampooned by the outside world, especially in a racialized manner.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Case in point:\u00a0 To commemorate the publication of \u201cLittle Black Sambo,\u201d I drew up a parody called \u201cLittle Yellow Jap\u201d to put the shoe on the other foot (debito.org\/chibikurosanbo.html<\/a>).\u00a0 I made the protagonist as stereotypically exaggerated as the ink-black gollywogs in the book:\u00a0 bright yellow skin, round glasses, buck teeth, and clad in a fundoshi loincloth.\u00a0 I pointed out on every page that this was a parody of Japan\u2019s Sambo, and contextualized it with a full explanation in Japanese of why racialized books for children are bad.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet for years now in the Japanese version of Wikipedia\u2019s entry on me, this parody is cited as an example of my \u201cdiscrimination against Japanese.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 Clearly turnabout is not in fair play.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Or consider the case of British TV show QI (Philip Brasor, \u201cCultural insensitivity no laughing matter<\/a>,\u201d Media Mix Jan. 30, 2011, discussed here<\/a>).\u00a0 Producers were forced to apologize for a joke about a recently-deceased Japanese who in 1945 unluckily travelled to Nagasaki, after experiencing the first atomic bombing, to catch the second one.\u00a0 A panelist had dryly quipped, \u201cHe never got the train again, I tell you.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not funny!\u00a0 That\u2019s insensitive.\u00a0 And insulting!\u00a0 And racist, according to the more unified online communities in Japan, backed up by protesting Japanese government officials, all of whom clearly understand irony.\u00a0 (For the record:\u00a0 I\u2019m being ironic.\u00a0 Please laugh.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Back to ANA.\u00a0 I bet the omnipotent gerontocracy at corporate headquarters didn\u2019t think anything amiss (obviously; they approved the ad), because, as is often claimed in these situations, Japanese in fact \u201cadmire\u201d (akogareru) white people. \u00a0This ad is, if anything, a paean. \u00a0After all, look at him!\u00a0 He looks like Robert Redford, one of the prototypical kakk\u014d-ii foreigners of our generation!\u00a0 (They could do with a Brad Pitt update, I guess.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In tepid apology letters, ANA uses the standard disclaimer: \u00a0\u201cWe didn\u2019t mean to offend anyone.\u201d\u00a0 Okay. \u00a0And I\u2019m sure many of your potential customers didn\u2019t \u201cmean\u201d to be offended either.\u00a0 But many were.\u00a0 And if you have any pretentions to being an international company, you wouldn\u2019t get in these sticky wickets in the first place.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Two apology letters https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12077#comment-431421<\/a><\/em>
\n https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12077#comment-431434<\/a><\/em>
\n UK Independent on the apologies https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12077#comment-431419<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

To be fair, this campaign was probably cooked up not by ANA, but by one of Japan\u2019s advertising oligarchs (no doubt Dentsu, with nearly a third of Japan\u2019s market share<\/a>).\u00a0 Anyone with an eye on the Japanese media knows how they make silly amounts of money on silly stereotypes (including the one that Japanese don\u2019t hug), while reaffirming the binary between \u201cJapan\u201d and \u201cthe rest of the world.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, ANA deserves its lumps, because reps simply don\u2019t know what they\u2019re apologizing for. \u00a0In fact, they clumsily reinforced the binary, stating in press releases that complaints have \u201cmostly come from foreign customers<\/a>\u201d (as opposed to real customers?), before finally pulling the ad last Tuesday<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Now consider this: \u00a0Gerry Nacpil, Supervisor of ANA Sky Web, wrote in his apology: \u201cThe intention of this commercial was\u2026 to encourage Japanese to travel abroad more and become global citizens<\/a>.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So\u2026 \u201cglobal citizens\u201d equals White people?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Now the ad is even more problematic.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To quote a friend, in an open letter to ANA:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDear ANA: \u00a0Are you aware that most of your foreigner customers are from places like Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong, Singapore, Manila, and Kuala Lumpur? \u00a0And that most of them probably don\u2019t have blond\/orange hair?\u00a0 Oh, and even the ones with blond hair probably don\u2019t have noses like a tengu goblin.\u00a0 And pretty sure that Japanese people enjoy being hugged and have emotions. \u00a0Well, at least the Japanese who aren\u2019t sticks-in-mud CEO boardroom types with no sense that the world doesn\u2019t really resemble their 19th<\/sup>-century, \u2018we are so different from you funny-looking white gaijin\u2019 Meiji-Era mentality.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLook forward to seeing your 2020 customers. \u00a0They may surprise you.\u00a0 Sincerely, A Big-Nosed White Guy who speaks Japanese.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Touch\u00e9.\u00a0 Look, Japan, if you want to host international events (such as an Olympics), or to have increased contact with the outside world, you\u2019ll face increased international scrutiny of your attitudes under global standards.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For one of Japan\u2019s most international companies to reaffirm a narrative that Japanese must change their race to become more \u201cglobal\u201d is a horrible misstep.\u00a0 ANA showed a distinct disregard for their Non-Japanese customers\u2014those who are \u201cWestern,\u201d yes, but especially those who are \u201cAsian.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Only when Japan\u2019s business leaders (and feudalistic advertisers) see NJ as a credible customer base they could lose due to inconsiderate behavior, there will be no change in marketing strategies.\u00a0 NJ should vote with their feet and not encourage this with passive silence, or by double-guessing the true intentions behind racially-grounded messages.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a prime opportunity.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let ANA off the hook on this.\u00a0 Otherwise the narrative of foreigner = \u201cbig-nosed blonde that can be made fun of\u201d without turnabout, will ensure that Japan\u2019s racialized commodification will be a perpetual game of \u201cwhack-a-mole.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only a few days into the case of racialized advertisement from ANA, I got tapped by the Japan Times to cover it. Debito.org Readers and Facebook Friends certainly gave me plenty of food for thought, so thank you all very much. Here’s my more polished opinion on it, which stayed the number one article on the JT Online for two full days! What follows is the “Director’s Cut” with excised paragraphs and links to sources. Conclusion:<\/p>\n

Look, Japan, if you want to host international events (such as an Olympics), or to have increased contact with the outside world, you\u2019ll face increased international scrutiny of your attitudes under global standards. For one of Japan\u2019s most international companies to reaffirm a narrative that Japanese must change their race to become more \u201cglobal\u201d is a horrible misstep. ANA showed a distinct disregard for their Non-Japanese customers\u2014those who are \u201cWestern,\u201d yes, but especially those who are \u201cAsian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only when Japan\u2019s business leaders (and feudalistic advertisers) see NJ as a credible customer base they could lose due to inconsiderate behavior, there will be no change in marketing strategies. NJ should vote with their feet and not encourage this with passive silence, or by double-guessing the true intentions behind racially-grounded messages. This is a prime opportunity. Don\u2019t let ANA off the hook on this. Otherwise the narrative of foreigner = \u201cbig-nosed blonde that can be made fun of\u201d without turnabout, will ensure that Japan\u2019s racialized commodification will be a perpetual game of \u201cwhack-a-mole.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,18,43,36,22,19,35,23,13,11,65,48,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pinprick-protests","category-academia","category-bad-business-practices","category-bad-social-science","category-cultural-issue","category-education","category-good-news","category-humor","category-media","category-problematic-foreign-treatment","category-racist-images-in-media","category-shoe-on-the-other-foot-dept","category-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}