Story at a glance
- Nike Japan released an advertisement that has themes of racism and bullying.
- While some appreciated the statement on diversity and inclusion, others were upset.
- The Black Lives Matter movement has sparked conversations about racism and colorism in Japan.
A new Nike ad has started a conversation about racism on the other side of the world.
Nike Japan released the two-minute video online on Nov. 27, adding the hashtag “YouCan’tStopUs” on social media.
動かしつづける。自分を。未来を。#YouCantStopUshttps://t.co/EEkOkOOeLt pic.twitter.com/aPnZcPAO05
— Nike Japan (@nikejapan) November 28, 2020
The video, which the company said is based on real life experiences, shows three girls struggling with their identity. One is reading about the zainichi, or immigrant Korean, experience, while another dark-skinned girl is teased by girls pulling at her hair. A third is Japanese, struggling to live up to her parents’ expectations at school. All three, in the end, find their place through sports, jumping up and down together as part of a team.
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“The power of sports is not just on the pitch. If we all work together, the future will be more open to us,” read the description for the YouTube video which had nearly 10 million views on Dec. 2.
But not everyone was open to Nike’s message and some criticized the ad online, accusing the company of virtue signaling — aligning with values or morals as a means of enhancing their image — and portraying Japan in a negative light. On YouTube, the video had about 44,000 dislikes by Wednesday, compared to 64,000 likes.
“Calling people who ,you [sic] have never met and haven’t research [sic] deeply, racist is kinda racist itself. Especially, when it comes to nationality,” commented one user on YouTube.
“When the Nike corporation starts lecturing Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, etc on their diversity (or lack of it), then maybe I’ll listen,” wrote another.
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Racism is a universal phenomenon, and so is the backlash. Japanese people make up 97.8 percent of Japan’s population, and the country is considered relatively homogeneous, although it is certainly diverse in its own right. But the Black Lives Matter movement started across the Pacific has sparked discussions around inclusivity within Japanese society.
Naomi Osaka, the No. 1 women’s tennis player in the world with her own Nike collection, was born in Japan and represents the country in the sport. The biracial star, whose mother is Japanese and father is Haitian, is a vocal advocate against racism, having faced it herself.
An early opponent “was talking with another Japanese girl, and they didn’t know that I was listening [or that] I spoke Japanese. Her friend asked her who she was playing, so she said Osaka. And her friend says, ‘Oh, that black girl. Is she supposed to be Japanese?’ And then the girl that I was playing was like, ‘I don’t think so,’” Osaka told the Wall Street Journal magazine. “I remember that specifically because, yeah, I sometimes feel like a lot of people think that way about me.”
In 2019, the Guardian reported that one of Osaka’s sponsors, the Japanese noodle company Nissin, apologized after “whitewashing” the star in an advertisement — months after a Japanese stand-up comedy duo apologized for saying she “looked sunburned” and “needed some bleach.”
Colorism is present in many Asian countries, where “whitening creams” have only recently rebranded and remain popular. At the same time, scholars have noted that the issue is deeply intertwined with colonial influences from the West and conversations are complicated by historical and cultural context.
Still, those conversations have to start somewhere — and for some, it’s here.
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