Japan Obama Monkey Ad Story-Part 1

[nud44]

Fukin liberals. Always loking for something that isnt there. The Thought police.

[411American]

America notice it's on a CNN Governmental channel ONLY a commercial in Japan ? meant to arouse the natives, Is the monkey name George? Here cartoon George got someone in Florida in trouble. Why can't sick raciest people get outside themselves and understand it's the situation not some stupid race a bunch of weak sensitive egotistical maniacs with inferiority complexes. America is no longer the land of the brave but the land of chickenshits that is government ploys.

[rbh1138]

Wow! The arrogance and even saying Obama-san to him. So disrespectful. Emobile's mascot is a monkey. Their rival's mascot is a white dog. Maybe you should learn about Japanese culture before reacting. In America the saying is "fighting like cats and dogs" in Japan its "fighting like dogs and monkeys."

[Anjruki]

i wonder if that was the entire black community in japan at the begining of the video haha i didnt know there was that many there that could bring a CEO ...

[drakesolar]

he doesn't look at him, he stares at the table

[liberalsarefailures]

Well, truth be told, he's not a monkey. The critical truth is that a monkey could run the country better than him. I don't care what Obama's race is. I would vote for a black man who wants to protect our constitutional republic. Clearly, Barack Obama doesn't.

[spites1]

aw did you hear that from fox news? I hear they like the truth

[boceanf]

wow eric gan in person!! literally from the horse's mouth. btw eaccess was founded in 1999 backed by foreign banks like GS and MS, its president a hong kong born, univ. of london grad (ex-vice pres of GS Japan!!). GS still holds 35% of its share. japanese company?? gimme a break...

[alexjademaru]

I am African American and there is no excuse. The ad was racist point blank. Most Asians think they are better than most races if not all. I myself think I am no better than any race, but I can say I am better than the people who thought to portray Obama as a monkey to sell a product. They have brought shame to Japan, but apparently it was always present.

[terismith88]

@alexjademaru "Most Asians think they are better than most races if not all." Comments like this is what we need to avoid if we want to create tolerance.

[totownmedia]

Akira-san, let me add one more point. Because Japan has profited from selling its products in international markets it should be more educated about the cultures of the nations where it sells its goods. No, the discourse in Japan is global , not local. We are watching you and listening to what you say around the world...mainly through the internet, which is how this controversy became known to Americans in the first place.

Thank you for your comments.

Malcolm W. Adams

Totown Webmaster

[totownmedia]

Thank you for your comment. Your phrase in English, "cultural invasion", is interesting. Have you considered the phrase, "Cross-cultural exploitation", on the part of this Japanese company? It is they who tried to exploit the image of an African-American leader without understanding the offensive cultural nuances that it represented. Given the history of such abuse against Black people, we will not allow that to go unchecked in the global public discourse. Japan is no longer an isolated nation.

[MrAkiraakira]

文化侵略だよ。ひどいね。猿回しの伝統、そしてこれは、日本人の­カスタマー向けなのにね。本当にひどい。

For Japanese Monkey dose not have bad meaning. This commercial for Japanese consumer. Monkey is this company`s mascot.

We feel this is cultural invasion.

[totownmedia]

OK, Tiyorozu-san. I can't put subtitles in, but perhaps I can do a translation with a voice over in Nihongo. Sore wa ii desuka? Izure, ne.

[TIYOROZU]

字幕くれ

[rustupidgay]

JAPAN's ad? this ad is "SoftBank".

though SoftBank is a company registered in Japan.

president of company is south korean.

maybe. most of exective are so.

who's racist? japanese? korean? black?

[abcabc11111111111111]

ＲＡＣＩＳＴ　is only white（Caucasian）people ....in the world now .....

Black people is assosiation from monkey

that's very Westerner　style thinking...

[MEAGHER79]

just for sake, dont sleep with the japanese woman. they dont need any cross breeding. there country is doing just fine.

[totownmedia]

Too late!

[Cdiwins1]

YAY i love black people

[sakhalinainu]

At least we should know every nation has every history & standard. US standard, whether good or bad, is just one of a huge number of standards in the world.

[sakhalinainu]

This ad doesn't mean that Japanese people look down Afro-american at all.

It just rather shows that they're FRIENDLY to Obama or Afro-American. -Actually any kinds of Black music, Eddie Murphy, Will Smith and many others; they are very popular there. This is the cultural differences. As long as you haven't lived in Japan for a loooong period to know & feel japanese society and their sophysticated way of thinking, you hardly get this Ad's meaning.

[ottam]

Sophisticated way of thinking? "Soph" is Greek for "knowledge". Their way of thinking, on this score, has no connection to knowledge. It is not an elaborate thinking process, but a simple one: How do Japanese people feel about this?

So they want to borrow Obama's charisma and presence but not have the decency to research how representing him as a monkey would make Black people feel? Nothing remotely sophisticated about that.

[totownmedia]

Well stated. Thank you for your comment.

Mal Adams

[sakhalinainu]

Well,,I know Afro-American would feel bad about this ad, of course. But before you get angry, you should know that situations in Japan & in US are quite different.The racism which people know today has been developped mostly in the NEW WORLD like US, Canada, Australia, and etc.

Japan hasn't had the same evil racism or exploitation system based on racism as ones in southern ares of US. Japanese people DON'T SEE Afro-American or other ethnics AS WHITE SEE THEM.

[ottam]

I disagree entirely. A third generation Korean born in Japan cannot get citizenship. Koreans and Chinese were thought to be less bright than Japanese and were required to take extra classes at school. Non-Japanese cannot hold office or certain important positions in society. Ishihara, the mayor of Tokyo, has campaigned on the platform of "foreign crime".

[rustupidgay]

what? they can natinality every time even now.

16000 korean obtained japanese nationality every year.

there is no "citizenship" in japan.

[terismith88]

@ottam where can I learn more

[audallas841]

@sakhalinainu World war 2.... cough, cough...... slaughtered 8-17 million chinese civilians.... cough cough.... because japan considered them inferior.... cough cough...... isolationist nation..... cough cough.... for thousands of years.... cough cough.... because everyone outside of japan.... cough cough.... was a "barbarian.... cough cough

[abcabc11111111111111]

Japan　country is not multi-ethnic nation

Different from USA or Brazil

we don.t care about racist problem daily in anytime so far ...

Racist problem is not so serious problem in japan

JAPAN has population of about 140million ....

Details of account ...99％is japanese of asia

so we don.t have opportunity meet and talk some other race people

[mint090]

The president of softbank is Korean, okay? Actually, you can see the discrimination to Japanese in the other CM in Japan.(hahaha, thats wierd. even japanese dont realize that.) Alsmot Japanese also don't realize that they are discriminated. Japanese and Black people are considered as son of the dog in Korea. Thats ture.

[suhyun]

Monkeys is very cute animal like dogs and cats in Japan. I do not understand that why this monkey is represent black people. This monkey is not black, hair is light brown, and red skin. I do not understand why it is racism. I think that person who think this ad is racism is racist.

[terismith88]

@suhyun did anyone ever address your comment? If not I'd be more then glad to explain.

[joseshema]

I thought now that Obama is president the blacks would get over with their issue of racism. They need to lighten up and get rid of the chip on their shoulder regarding slavery.

[Amarx00]

@joseshema

Thats not a clever comment, shows insentitivty and ignorance, many black peoples around the world are still living with the legacy of our past, if you want to admit that or not... but the point im making is that because your not black you dont know... But not to say that you have to be black exclusively to be able to empathise with black/any peoples.

[Amarx00]

@joseshema

And a black president cannot overnight turn around the legacy of 100s' of years of abuse rape & oppression.

Ask you black friends, if you have any, and if you dont it kind of proves my point.

It's kinda like saying you should get over the predudices' & sterotypes I see all the time focused on Aisian peoples in the media today.

Which has long legacy as you know... whats the difference?

[milkau828]

Wtf are you saying? You got the damn highest office of this country, you got equal rights and affirmative action, you have brainwashed all white women to sleep with your race, you made cool diversity relationships, what do you want more now?! Our fucking lives, the right to kill the white men?!

You liberals are sick.

[aristottlesdeathwish]

lol the bastard still thinks its funny. He was laughing when he said "obama as a monkey"

[masada811]

God bless you for pointing out how close minded our society truly is... Latent racism and euro-centrism is still deeply rooted here in Japan. While alot of it is a result of pure ignorance and insensitivity, there are many Japanese people who still look down on non-whites, be they African, African American, Filipino, Brazilian, Indonesian, Chinese, Korean, etc...

[ogida]

Thanks for posting this video and for issuing a complaint about this. It's good that the company responded by pulling the ad but I don't believe that it was merely cultural misunderstanding. Why use a monkey to represent a Black man, why not a lion? This is typical racist ad industry garbage.

[samuraizulu]

i heard from somewhere that the monkey is their company's mascot, im not sure if its true however...

[totownmedia]

It is true.

[kusakabemanai]

if the company intend to insult black ppl, they will lose the black customers living in Japan or potential buyers in America. I don't think they are so stupid as to break their potential market.