The ad already has more than 10 million views on YouTube and 16.5 million on Twitter.

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Youtube screenshot

A Nike advertising video evoking racism and discrimination in Japan sparked heated debate on social networks, with some Internet users calling for a boycott of the sports brand accused of being anti-Japanese.

Entitled "Continue to move: oneself, the future", the clip shows three teenage girls, harassed at school because of their origins or their differences, gain self-confidence thanks to their sporting prowess, soccer ball. foot.

The two-minute film, posted Monday by the sponsor of Métis Japanese-Haitian tennis champion Naomi Osaka, surpassed 16 million views on Twitter on Friday.

The video elicited widely divided opinions also on Youtube where it has been viewed over 10 million times, totaling nearly 50,000 inches up (“like”) and over 30,000 inches down (“I don't like”) ).

"I will no longer buy Nike for myself or for my children"

One scene from Nike's video includes a young girl in a traditional Korean costume stared at by passers-by and, in another, a teenage girl whose father is black surrounded by her schoolmates touching her hair.

Naomi Osaka, born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a Haitian father, also makes an appearance in the clip, on the smartphone of one of the young girls.

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

If Nike's intention was to show that sport can help regain self-confidence in the face of discrimination, many Internet users have expressed their anger, notably believing that the brand does not know the reality of Japan.

"Goodbye Nike," wrote a Japanese Twitter user.

"I will no longer buy Nike for myself or for my children."

“Isn't sport a way to have fun?

Is it fun to use it to vent your frustrations?

Asked another.

Some approved the message, however.

“This superb advertisement really touched me.

This is Nike.

I want people to believe in themselves, accept themselves as they are and look to the future, ”said one internet user.

Racial prejudice remains strong in Japan

Several Métis athletes such as Naomi Osaka or NBA basketball player Rui Hachimura have gained notoriety in Japan in recent years.

The tennis champion, who took a stand this summer in favor of the Black Lives Matter movement, wore the names of black victims of police brutality in the United States on her masks, as she climbed to the top of the table in the United States. 'US Open this year.

But she has had to contend with a lack of racial sensitivity in Japan, which she hopes to wear at the Tokyo Olympics next summer.

Despite an increasing number of mixed marriages, racial prejudices remain strong in Japan vis-à-vis mixed race children, known as "hafu" (from English "half" or half) in the archipelago.

The mixed-race Japanese Ariana Miyamoto, elected Miss Japan 2015, had thus suffered a deluge of insults on social networks.

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  • Sport

  • Discrimination

  • Racism

  • By the Web

  • Social networks

  • Twitter

  • Japan

  • Publicity

  • Nike