US blasts Japan’s NHK for ‘offensive’ video

Bloomberg

The acting US ambassador to Japan denounced an animated video from public broadcaster NHK aimed at explaining the Black Lives Matter protests, adding to widespread criticism that it perpetuated racist stereotypes.
“The caricatures used are offensive and insensitive,” Joe Young, the Charge d’Affaires ad interim, said on Twitter on Tuesday of the animation. It didn’t mention the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who died after a white police officer in Minneasota knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.
The video was broadcast on NHK’s show for young viewers called “Kore de Wakatta! Sekai no Ima” (Now I Understand! The World Now) on June 7, and then used on the program’s Twitter account. It showed a caricature of a muscle-bound black man in a tank top shouting about the economic disadvantages faced by people of color in the US. It also showed what appeared to be scenes of looting, without touching on the topic of police brutality that
has been a focal point of the US protests.
In a rare public rebuke from a US envoy to the long-standing ally, Young added that it was “unfortunate that more thought and care didn’t go into this video.” Other caricatured figures in the video, which was widely shared on social media, were shown playing the guitar and stamping their feet in the background.
NHK issued a statement saying it had received many complaints about the video for not explaining the situation accurately. The broadcaster said the 80-second video had been used as part of a longer segment to explain data on income disparities in a way that was easy to understand.
The statement included an apology to people who had been “made to feel uncomfortable” and the animation was deleted from the show’s Twitter account.
Japanese officials have made little comment on the demonstrations in the US other than to say that racism should not be allowed anywhere. Meanwhile hundreds turned out in Black Lives Matter rallies in Tokyo and Osaka over racial injustice in the US, and what protesters said have been brutal tactics used against racial minorities in Japan.
The incident is not the first high-profile case of racial insensitivity in Japan.