A Japanese Nike ad, chronicling the experiences of three female football players from different backgrounds, sparked heated debate on social media. Many have called for a boycott of the brand.
Nike released a video, titled "The future does not wait" which shows how teenage girls who are victims of discrimination and harassment are able to gain self-confidence through football.
The video had 16.3 million views and over 91,000 likes on Twitter from Thursday morning. Sure Youtube, it has been viewed over 10 million times and has garnered over 71,000 likes as well as 50,000 dislikes. While many Internet users qualified the advertisement as "https://www.aufeminin.com/"amazing" and of "powerful", many also pointed out that the film distorted modern Japanese society. "Goodbye Nike " or "Nike makes the Japanese its enemies. Japanese people who don't know about this ad might continue to buy Nike, but I will never buy Nike. ", could we read in the comments.
One of the three teenage girls in the video is Japanese, one is Korean, and the third is mixed race. This raised questions about Japanese identity and forced the country to face prejudice. The young Korean learns about the "zainichi situation " – a word used to describe Koreans who live in Japan. The young Japanese girl is bullied at school as the third young girl is surrounded by a group of students who touch her hair. All of them end up finding their voice through football.
A spokesperson for Nike Japan told CNN Business that this ad was inspired by testimonials from real athletes who "like many people today, find it difficult to feel accepted for who they are." https://www.aufeminin.com/ "The objective of this film is to defend sport as a vehicle for empower young people to create the change they want to see. Discrimination is a global problem that exists around the world. The testimonies of these true athletes have inspired us to take action and speak out more openly about bullying and discrimination.", he added.
Naomi Osaka, born in Japan to a Japanese mother and Haitian father, also appears in the ad. The latter was faced with a lack of racial sensitivity in her country after joining the movement Black Lives Matter. Racial prejudices are still deeply rooted in Japanese society vis-à-vis mixed-race children, called "hafu" (from English "half"). Last year the noodle business Nissin apologized after being accused of "bleachedNaomi Osaka, who then appeared pale skinned, brown hair, and Caucasian in a video ad.