http://gizmodo.com/5019356/emobiles-japanese-ad-equates-obama-with-a-monkey-to-sell-phones

EMobile's Japanese Ad Equates Obama with a Monkey to Sell Phones

YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpH9ALMceGs

In this Japanese EMobile Ad, a monkey politician stands before a crowd chanting and holding up signs calling for "change." This Ad may seem harmless to most viewers, but it represents just how clueless the Japanese are in regards to being racially sensitive... and/or... it shows just how racist the Japanese really are and how willing they are to show it without actually admitting it.

[Edited on July 2, 2008 at 8:41 AM. Reason : -]

7/2/2008 8:38:38 AM

This quote,

Quote :

"clueless the Japanese are in regards to being racial sensitive... "

and this quote,

Quote :

"it shows just how racist the Japanese really are "

dont mix. How can they be clueless about racism and blatantly racist at the same time?

Definately should go with the OR, not the AND.

Its the first of the two. they dont have to watch every word they say like white americans do....

[Edited on July 2, 2008 at 8:45 AM. Reason : .]

7/2/2008 8:42:42 AM

An and/or statement

As in, either EMobile is clueless and didn't realize their missteps, or EMobile is completely aware and they are playing dumb now.

^ lol

It can be an And statement as well. The President of EMobile could be completely unaware of what he allowed to air, but the marketing team that actually made it could have done it with conviction, but are now playing dumb.

Isn't English like magic?

[Edited on July 2, 2008 at 9:05 AM. Reason : -]

7/2/2008 8:43:13 AM

Quote :

"could of"

COULD'VE OR COULD HAVE

NOT "COULD OF"

Sorry, but I have been getting annoyed by that lately. I just had to get it out of my system.

7/2/2008 9:00:28 AM

It's okay, I know how letters can be sometimes. It's like they have a mind of their own. Anyway, back on topic. WTF Japan?

7/2/2008 9:06:37 AM

I used to read this blog - http://www.gaijinsmash.net/ - it's by a black American man (formerly?) teaching english in Japan. He says that the country is overwhelmingly homogeneous and most of them have never seen a black person in person and that they are not at all prepared, in general, to deal with people of other races in an appropriate way. He calls the phenomenon when Japanese people see him for the first time "Big Black Man Fear"
(he also says that they live up to, and exceed, all the strange sexual fetish stereotypes )

7/2/2008 9:27:10 AM

I'll post this, because it did capture the essence of the issue

Quote :

"The commercial clearly is a parody of Barack Obama’s campaign, which has received a lot of positive media coverage in Japan, but I don’t feel that it reflects racist ideas about black people and monkeys. E-mobile has used this cute Japanese macaque as their mascot in commercials before this one (in the last one the monkey listened to headphones while using a PC), so it would be hard to claim that they just pulled this monkey out of nowhere so they could make a racist joke (this is not the same as Mandom’s ad). The monkey’s previous commercials had him acting like a human, so it was already established that E-mobile’s mascot is a cute monkey that mimics people. With this latest ad, they were probably trying to make a cute commercial that brings attention to the benefits of changing to E-mobile’s service, and a parody of Obama’s “Change” slogan was most likely included without a thought of race issues. I doubt that most Japanese people would even understand how a pink-faced grey monkey native to Japan could be equated to African people. Taken completely out of context by foreigners, this commercial will appear racist. I expect that e-mobile will be getting letters of complaint and phone calls from angry people who assumed this commercial was making an offensive racial joke, and I wouldn’t be surprised if e-mobile reacts by pulling the ad. But if you ask me if this commercial is a racist jab at Barack Obama and black people, I’d have to tell you I don’t think it is."

http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4930

Oh, and they did pull it after this. Something purported to be "racist" from Japan (and other asian nations too) goes around the blog circuit about every week.

This issue is a result of your own sensitivities to race, not Japan being racist. I mean, if you want examples of racism in Japan, I can find you plenty. This is not one of them.

7/2/2008 9:43:58 AM

^ i think that sums it up well. We look too hard for racism these days. Anything that could remotely be considered racist all of a sudden IS racist. A great example of this is a friend of mine who is Latin American got offended one day because she saw "Spanish Number Bean Bags" for sale at target. I can remember having number and color bean bags when I was a kid, its not like it is anything new. But, take the EXACT same product and write the words in spanish...all of a sudden she saw it as racist because it was spanish bean bags.

7/2/2008 10:05:54 AM

Aren't the Japanese infatuated with black people?

7/2/2008 10:22:29 AM

Aren't white chicks infatuated with black people?

7/2/2008 10:36:46 AM

Why is it racist to equate a politician with a monkey?

7/2/2008 12:55:13 PM

Why is it racist to equate a politician with a monkey?


Either way, apparently EMobile has been using a monkey in their commercials for a while, it wasn't like they transitioned to a monkey for Obama.

I'm glad we're focusing on this instead of the real issues defining race in America. I'd much rather tackle irrelevant commercials out of Japan than the incarceration of non-violent drug offenders or dismal state of inner-city education, or the negative effects of gentrification on black society. Jeez, those all sound complicated.

7/2/2008 12:56:58 PM

Quote :

"This issue is a result of your own sensitivities to race, not Japan being racist. I mean, if you want examples of racism in Japan, I can find you plenty. This is not one of them."

As fun as it would be to talk about racism in Japan, or racism in homogeneous ethnic societies as a whole, mrfrog summed it up nicely.

7/2/2008 1:29:20 PM

Quote :

"just how clueless the Japanese are in regards to being racially sensitive.."

u are just ignorant of japanese society. Japanese people have a high level of racial pride and to go along with a high degree of prejudice against other races even other oriental races.

7/2/2008 1:30:36 PM

True, as evidenced by occasional bullshit statements by Japanese politicians, Japan does take pride in their racial homogeneity. Never mind the fact that they're not a racially homogeneous society (98.5% != 100% and yes it makes a difference). China, for instance, is way more homogeneous than Japan (this is easy when immigration goes out, instead of both ways).

It's funny where their racism is directed though. A part of it is towards all foreigners indiscriminately, but Japan is definitely most racist to Chinese. Calling Chinese the "trash race" is verifiable racism in Japan. On the other hand, they simply haven't had all that much occasion to be racist towards Europeans or blacks. Of course going to war necessitates use of comics showing *gasp* big nosed, money grubbing white people, but considering they spent half of modern history 'catching up' to white people and the fact the they're still America's political bitch, any superiority complex is tenable at best.

To a degree, Japan wants to become capable of multiculturalism as well. Globalization is certainly a key factor, and I'd say around 2000-ish they were pretty gung-ho about cultural exchange and possibly *gasp* multiculturalism. However, rapid industrialization of China certainly did not bode well for their glass jaw of racial pride, and upon seeing that immigration would not happen in the exact way they imagined, many people are getting a little wet feet. And by "many people", I mean the mass media.

7/2/2008 3:50:16 PM

Quote :

"China, for instance, is way more homogeneous than Japan "

Are you serious?

China has tons of different ethnic groups. Tibetens are different from 'han chinese.' The fact that han chinese have to be differentiated at all shows that there are different groups.

7/2/2008 4:25:36 PM

Quote :

"China, for instance, is way more homogeneous than Japan (this is easy when immigration goes out, instead of both ways)."

I would take exception to that. If I remember, only 90.6% of China is ethnic Han Chinese; the remaining 9.4% are made up of the 55 officially recognized ethnic minority groups in China. The impression I get is that while those minorities take pride in being Chinese citizens, they don't necessarily consider themselves ethnic Chinese (ie. Han Chinese).

Quote :

"Japanese people have a high level of racial pride and to go along with a high degree of prejudice against other races even other oriental races."

This makes sense when you think it through. Take for example the big three Northeast Asian states: China, Japan, and Korea. Each of these nations have been culturally homogeneous for over a couple of millennium, give or take a few centuries. Sure, there have been plenty of cultural dissemination and the movement of people, but those core identities have been rooted for a very long period of time. As a result, they have very strong ethnic identities where, with a few exceptions like the Chinese minorities or the Ainu, ethnicity = state. These nations are also neighbors who have thousands of years worth of history worth of interactions and grudges to build up plenty of stereotypes, usually not so pleasant ones running on the lines of "dirty, violent, and uncivilized criminals."

To be fair to the Japanese, the Chinese and Koreans have a huge stack of stereotypes against their neighbors as well. Loinclothed, two-faced backstabbing pirates; neurotic, short-tempered wife beaters; sneaky, arrogant cheapskates; the list goes on and on. This doesn't even go into the regional stereotypes within each nation.

I'm sure as these nations interact more with other ethnic groups from around the world, the prejudices will only increase. Yet, I don't think that's particular the Confucian states, it's just a part of human nature.

7/2/2008 4:36:20 PM

It's amazing how petty a conflict seems when you couldn't give a rats ass who wins out. It's like Borat. Guy from who-knows-what country, and gets all rilled up just at the mention of who-knows-what's neighbor.

I'm sure you think that neighbor is the devil on earth, but American's can't even tell the difference between the two, because we all know America's opinion is really all that matters

7/2/2008 6:13:24 PM

OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCmiKJLx5IY

7/2/2008 9:03:43 PM

from random professor in that video:

Quote :

"cluelessness really isn't an excuse"

if they're clueless about the negative connotation then wouldn't that likely indicate that it wasn't meant to be racist?

7/3/2008 12:53:52 AM

7/3/2008 8:16:54 AM

they pulled the ad... pussies.

7/3/2008 9:15:52 AM

hahaha i didn't even have to read the comments after watching this video to know someone would call it racist.

The Obama campaign and its supporters have a near monopoly on umbrage this year.

7/3/2008 11:25:36 AM

you say that the week after all the mock outrage at clark's comments about mccain

7/3/2008 11:27:35 AM

Oh and I almost forgot....

Quote :

"Good Heavens! Portraying a politician as a monkey? That can't be viewed as anything other than ra-ra-ra-racccciissm!!!!~~~~"

7/3/2008 11:29:49 AM

i see you don't care to respond to me calling you out

7/3/2008 11:32:52 AM

^ not really. If I cared enough, we could count up all the times that the Obama campaign or its surrogates cried racism (Geoff Davis? Bill Clinton's remarks in SC? Hillary Clinton's remarks on being able to win working whites? Geraldine Ferraro?) and compare that to the number of times McCain or his surrogates have claimed foul over someone critiquing his military service (before this week i can't think of a single time). But I really don't feel like wasting my time on it.

Especially after the last time you "called me out". You went out of your way, in an totally unrelated thread, to imply that my support of John McCain meant I didn't care about health care anymore. Not to waste that thread's time, I directed you to another post detailing my position and providing (i believe) a credible defense of McCain's health care agenda. For some reason I never heard back. Apparently arguing about REAL issues doesn't provide the same satisfaction as arguing about trivial bs. For some people anyways. But not us, I hope.

[Edited on July 3, 2008 at 11:53 AM. Reason : ``]

7/3/2008 11:39:58 AM

Quote :

"not really. If I cared enough, we could count up all the times that the Obama campaign or its surrogates cried racism (Geoff Davis? Bill Clinton's remarks in SC? Hillary Clinton's remarks on being able to win working whites? Geraldine Ferraro?) and compare that to the number of times McCain or his surrogates have claimed foul over someone critiquing his military service (before this week i can't think of a single time). But I really don't feel like wasting my time on it."

i think you just did

and as to why i didn't respond to you before: i don't really talk over pm's much and i didn't feel like responding to a 3 month old post. hell, i don't even really buy that mccain has real intentions of getting anything done on the health care front. i don't think he'd veto a plan that congress came up with if it was reasonable, but i also don't think he'll spearhead the issue.

7/3/2008 12:49:07 PM

sarijoul. I dont see any threads about the attacks on mccains service this week, and obama, again, denouncing the comments. LOL

Nope the eyes are focused on commercials in japan. bravo

For the sake of you and I sarijoul, the govt doing LESS in healthcare will be the right thing to do. Universal health is just another entitlement program we cant fund and just more power being handed over to our bloated govt to be used as another political lever.

7/3/2008 12:59:54 PM

this forum isn't exactly the end-all be-all of political discourse either (thank god)

7/3/2008 1:06:03 PM

sarijoul, but you DO feel like talking about Japanese monkey commercials? interesting.

7/3/2008 1:44:30 PM

i actually haven't talked about it at all

7/3/2008 1:47:47 PM

^ you're right. Correction:

Quote :

"but you DO feel like talking [the Obama campaign's reaction to] Japanese monkey commercials [and comparing that to offenses taken by the McCain campaign]?"

Truly a discussion of substance.

[Edited on July 3, 2008 at 1:54 PM. Reason : ``]

7/3/2008 1:51:31 PM

Japan's health care system is fucked by the way.

7/3/2008 1:52:32 PM

Hey socks, you don't moisturize McCain's balls by chance do you?

mrfrog: Again you're wrong, I had nothing but great experiences with their healthcare system while I was there, and I got sick as a dog and had to take full advantage of it too.

[Edited on July 3, 2008 at 1:53 PM. Reason : .]

7/3/2008 1:52:39 PM

Quote :

"sarijoul. I dont see any threads about the attacks on mccains service this week, and obama, again, denouncing the comments. LOL"

that's because the "attacks" on his service weren't attacks at all - just another set of wildly overblown, out-of-context sound bites. Obama never should have denounced them, and McCain shouldn't have acted like Clark had just kicked him in his balls

7/3/2008 1:54:19 PM

^^ anecdotal evidence for the win!

[Edited on July 3, 2008 at 1:55 PM. Reason : ``]

7/3/2008 1:54:50 PM

Sure, it's anecdotal, but it's far more than he gave


http://www.medhunters.com/articles/healthcareInJapan.html#summaryQ0

This article paints a fairly even picture of Japan's healthcare - pretty good but not perfect. They could use more doctors and a better fee system, but overall the system works well.

[Edited on July 3, 2008 at 2:03 PM. Reason : .]

7/3/2008 1:56:43 PM

Quote :

""but you DO feel like talking [the Obama campaign's reaction to] Japanese monkey commercials [and comparing that to offenses taken by the McCain campaign]?""

no. all i initially did was respond to your claim that obama has a "near monopoly on umbrage this campaign". no more, no less.

7/3/2008 2:07:24 PM

Quote :

"mrfrog: Again you're wrong, I had nothing but great experiences with their healthcare system while I was there, and I got sick as a dog and had to take full advantage of it too."

oh god damn, you sure showed me.

7/3/2008 2:36:49 PM

I know this isnt the thread but Ill address Japans "great" healthcare.

Japan is in the midst of a shrinking population. 2005 was the first year that they had more deaths than births. This is giving them some bad long term outlooks socially and economically.

For one japan is nowing having a shortage of obstetricians. On Oki Island, for example, you should try to time your contractions for monday mornings. That is the only day of the week an obstetricians flies in. If you have it on another day, you have to be airlifted out to another hospital. The last obstetricians left the island in 2006 and they arent expecting more.

No doubt many of you here are saying, "well that is what happens all the time in the sticks of WV" or any other rurals place. The problem is Oki island has a population of 17,000. Its just a matter of supply and demand.

Why in the world some of you want MORE govt in your everyday lives and healthcare Ill never understand. I attribute it to youth and ignorance. The wait times for even an MRI should be enough to scare people. If that doesnt, how about this. While canadians wait up to 18months for an MRI... Up until 2 yrs ago the city of philadelphia had more MRIs than the entire great white north.

Oh here is a local flavor on it too,

"This part of the industry is getting more and more competitive every year," says Bruce Nelson of Wisconsin-based Zimmerman & Associates, a health-care consulting group. "In Canada, you have one (MRI) for every province. Here, it seems like you have 20 in every city. And a lot of that is due to the profitability."

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2003/11/03/story7.html


For all of you that feel you have some kind of moral virtue when it comes to social programs. Ill present this:

"nothing makes a citizen more selfish than socially equitable communitarianism:once a fellow's enjoying the furits of government health care and all the rest, he couldn't give a hoot about the general societal interest; he's got his, and if it's going to bankrupt the state a generation hence, well, as long as they can keep the checks coming till he's dead, it's fine by him."

Sounds familiar.

The next great line:

"A citizen of an advanced democracy expects to be able to choose from dozens of breakfast cereals at the supermarket, hundreds of movies at the video store, and millions of porno sites on the Internet, but when it comes to life-or-death decisions about his own body he's happy to have the choice taken out of his hands and given to the governement."

I believe both of these are referenced from Lloyd Axworthy, former canadian foreign minister.

7/3/2008 3:48:38 PM

This reminds me of the Resident Evil 5 controversy. If you don't remember the trailers, here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpIWhAAiNRc&feature=related

Basically, the idea of the game is that a bunch of Africans (black, of course) became zombies, and a lone white guy has to kill them all off. Seems racist, but the game wasn't created by Americans. Rather than try to make the Japanese understand how racist they supposedly are, we should probably recognize the fact that they aren't making these things with racist motivations at all. In the case of the commercial, the people that automatically associate a monkey with a black person are the racists.

7/3/2008 3:57:25 PM

As I understand it, most Japanese shun outsiders until they can manage to out-drift their gang leader in a car race.

7/3/2008 4:25:30 PM

^^^ I'll mostly leave it at that, but you missed just a few big ones.

Japan's demographic trap has extreme consequences, and their government did not save up as much as it should have (big surprise!!) for the aging population. Right now, the government is in an upheaval and some try to find some way to possibly pay the bills while others are using it as an excuse to completely turn power away from the old ruling party, while others are trying to sell it as a way to sap the national government of power entirely.

They've already instituted a new system that allows them to take more out of people's retirement accounts, do so at an earlier age, and push back retirement age. This damaged the current system further and still manages to make little difference towards paying for a respectable part of the rising costs.

Now, the a proposal on the table is to raise the consumption tax from 5% to something like 30% so they can pay the bills. You can just imagine how popular this is.

But one of the worst parts of this is that they simply don't have the medical workers to staff what they need. You know, that pool of new workers is oh-so-big right now that the bottom fell out the low birthrate problem. This is why many immigration proposals boil down to "pay people from Indonesia to come take care of our old people".

Their general care is still good, and they're a healthy population. Companies and schools often take significant vested interest. But for an advanced surgery, I would opt to have it done here in the States. You know, we are the best.

[Edited on July 3, 2008 at 4:40 PM. Reason : ]

7/3/2008 4:39:09 PM