{"id":4192,"date":"2009-08-23T16:56:54","date_gmt":"2009-08-23T07:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=4192"},"modified":"2009-08-23T21:21:32","modified_gmt":"2009-08-23T12:21:32","slug":"mcdonalds-japan-mr-james-reports-of-improvements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=4192","title":{"rendered":"McDonald’s Japan “Mr James”: Reports of improvements"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Handbook<\/a>\"\\\"<\/a>\"Foreign<\/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>\"JAPANESE<\/a>\"sourstrawberriesavatar\"<\/a>UPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito<\/p>\n

Hi Blog. \u00a0I am hearing of improvements in the infamous and controversial katakana-speaking “gaijin” character “Mr James”, advertising McDonald’s hamburgers. \u00a0Just wanted to confirm with Debito.org readers:<\/p>\n

1) Peach reports the “katakana tray inserts” (meaning these):<\/p>\n

\"mcdonaldsmrjames002\"<\/a><\/p>\n

are not being used anymore. \u00a0 Visited a McDonald’s in Tennouji, Osaka today and discovered this.<\/p>\n

2) Justin commented to Debito.org:<\/p>\n

Submitted on 2009\/08\/19 at 9:54pm
One interesting note about the \u201cMr. James\u201d ads: There aren\u2019t any in the McDonalds across from Kamiyacho Station, just down the hill from the Hotel Okura. This is a gaijin-heavy area, with lots of us staying in the hotel or working in the offices nearby. If the \u201cMr. James\u201d ads are so inoffensive, why is McDonalds Japan keeping them out of its restaurants in foreigner-heavy neighborhoods?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

3) As has been reported in the SCMP<\/a> and other media outlets, the “backstory” of this character has become more sophisticated, depicting him as a tourist from Ohio, not a resident of Japan, burgering his way through Japan’s burghers (dare him to come to Hokkaido!) and blogging his experiences. \u00a0Although this doesn’t excuse his being rendered in katakana. \u00a0For those wishing to give McD’s the benefit of the doubt (I don’t), one could argue that this man is just a Japan otaku, not the typical gaijin. \u00a0But you still got the huge billboards outside the restaurant with Mr James — you don’t even have to go inside the restaurant to get “Jamesed”, let alone take the trouble to visit online and get the backstory. \u00a0Collateral effects.<\/p>\n

4) Mr James has suddenly become a quick study in Japanese. \u00a0His blog posts are no longer exclusively in katakana<\/a>, although his Japanese remains a bit on the broken side (all the nouns are gaijinized in katakana) with nary a kanji to be seen.<\/p>\n

Are others seeing these improvements? \u00a0And are there any more adjustments to report?<\/p>\n

These are all evidence that McDonald’s Japan is taking complaints about this campaign seriously. \u00a0But I still say the campaign must be suspended entirely. \u00a0They may be trying to make him a character with more redeeming characteristics. \u00a0But he’s still, in my book, a gaijin — an epithet made flesh; that’s how he was designed, and now McDonald’s Japan, for better or worse, is saddled with him. \u00a0Get rid of this albatross.<\/p>\n

Arudou Debito in Sapporo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McDonald’s Japan seems to be tweaking the “Mr James” campaign in a more positive direction: 1) Losing the katakana tray inserts, 2) Giving him a more endearing backstory, 3) Having him speak in hiragana too, not just katakana, 4) Not featuring him in more international neighborhoods of Japan. Readers, confirm, deny, or expand?<\/p>\n

These are all evidence that McDonald’s Japan is taking complaints about this campaign seriously. But I still say the campaign must be suspended entirely. They may be trying to make him a character with more redeeming characteristics. But he’s still, in my book, a gaijin — an epithet made flesh; that’s how he was designed, and now McDonald’s Japan, for better or worse, is saddled with him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,22,44,47,35,12,13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-business-practices","category-cultural-issue","category-discussions","category-food","category-good-news","category-immigration-assimilation","category-media","category-problematic-foreign-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4192","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=4192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}