Nike Japan ad sparks debate over racism online, some boycott calls

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The two-minute film, titled “The Future Doesn’t Wait,” shows how teens, who are bullied because of their race or other differences, ultimately find confidence in their football ability.

The video racked up 16.3 million views on Twitter Thursday morning and over 91,000 likes. On YouTube, it has been viewed over 10 million times and over 40,000 people have commented. While there are around 71,000 likes on this video, there are also some 50,000 dislikes.

Some social media users described the film as “amazing” and “powerful”. A Twitter user by the name of Ponzu wrote that the film “shows how unconscious acts can hurt people in everyday life.”

But he has ruffled the feathers of others, who think he is distorting modern Japanese society.

One YouTube user, Momo Azama, commented: “Nike has made the Japanese their enemy. Japanese people who don’t know about this ad might keep buying Nike, but I will never buy Nike.” Another user, A This Is, wrote: “It’s really dangerous because it leads to division. And they make the extra money. I throw up on it.”

Japan is a largely ethnically homogeneous society – according to the 2018 census, 98% of the population is considered Japanese. But in recent years, celebrities such as tennis star Naomi Osaka, who grew up in the United States and is of Japanese and Haitian descent, have given people of mixed heritage greater prominence in the public sphere.
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This raised questions about Japanese identity and forced the country to face unconscious prejudices.

One of the three girls playing soccer in the ad is Japanese, another is Korean, and the third is mixed race, with a black father and a Japanese mother.

The Korean girl is shown the reading of the “zainichi situation” – a word used to describe ethnically Korean people who live in Japan. The Japanese girl is bullied at school and struggles to cope with parental pressure to perform academically, and in one scene, the third girl is surrounded by a group of classmates touching his hair.

They ultimately find their voice through football and prove themselves to their peers.

A spokesperson for Nike Japan told CNN Business on Thursday that the ad was based on testimonials from real athletes who “like many people today find it difficult to feel accepted for who they are.”

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“The aim of this film is to champion sport as a way for young people to create the change they want to see,” the spokesperson said. “Discrimination is a global problem and it exists all over the world. The testimonials of these true athletes have inspired us to take action and speak more openly about bullying and discrimination.

Osaka, who was named the world’s highest-paid female athlete earlier this year, is celebrated in Japan, her country of birth. But his rise to fame has revealed problematic attitudes towards race and ethnicity in some sections of Japanese society.

Last year, Nissin Noodle Company, one of Osaka’s sponsors, apologized after being accused of “bleaching” the athlete, portraying her with pale skin, brown hair and Caucasian features in an animated advertisement.

– Yoko Wakatsuki contributed to this report.

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