Mr. James
 

Anybody else apalled by the recent McDonald's commercials featuring "Mr. James"? They're wrong on so many levels, but I won't even waste the energy typing. This article sums it up nicely. I normally hate this guy, but he makes good points and brings all the info together.

Meet Mr. James, gaijin clown | The Japan Times Online

One thing not discussed in the article that I was wondering is, what the hell is going through the actor's head? The only thing I can justify is that he doesn't care and is just making a quick buck. This wouldn't be outsourced, would it? It's all taken care of by a Japanese ad agency so I can't see why a foreigner in Japan wouldn't be used. Has this fool no self respect or respect for the community of not-Japanese people (98% of the world population) to which he belongs?

GTJ, do you know of any good Youtube links? I can only find two, and to be honest it is hard to figure out what the big deal is from them. I am thinking I am not seeing the commercials you are.

Hmm, I don't really see a big deal about this. Actually the commercial was pretty freaking boring, I almost fell asleep. If they were going to make fun of white people they better do it Dave Chapelle style.

YouTube - Japan's Mr. James McDonalds TV Commercial

This one's actually really funny. It's not bad. I haven't seen this one yet (as it's not being aired). The Japanese speakers will see why it's funny. Especially when he starts doing Japanese tongue twisters.

The one's being aired now aren't on youtube yet. They just started not too long ago. When I get some links I'll post them. However, they're pretty bad. THey have him running around Japan screaming about how much he loves it in Japanese (NIPPON DAI SUKI!!!!!!!) in peoples' faces, and generally being a "baka gaijin". It basically promotes stereotypes to a population that is generally ignorant of foreigners to begin with. I can imagine being confronted with a Japanese person in the near future who, after talking to me for two minutes, says, "oh wow you're not like Mr. James at all. That's so crazy".

Yes, this is one of the two I found. It's hard for me to get too upset about it, but I am looking forward to seeing the one you are describing. It's not on the McD's website.

That being said I think in 2009 "ignorance of foreigners" in Japan is a debatable topic. For sure, Tokyoites have a different understanding than remote rural folks, but to be honest I would be doubtful that Mr. James would be any Japanese person's first exposure to foreigners in the media (unless they were three-years-old).

Again, until I can see the offensive commercials I will have to hold judgement.

Oh, it's worse than that on Thai TV and no one cares.

My favorite was a Thai man kissed a Thai woman outside, and she slapped him (Thai don't show affection in public) and said "What, are you some stupid white foreigner?" in Thai.

So that pretty much sets the bar; they brand all white people to have lower moral standards than they do.

I just look at it this way; the joke's on them. The only reason there are so many pervert white guys in Thailand is because there are so many slut women as hookers. So all the dirty sex tourists come to Thailand because of the dodgey Thais. This is why they get this impression; because they appeal to these people in their market. But being from Australia, most white people have higher standards than they do on most things.

If they can't see this, they're clearly a retard. We should be laughing at them for their racism; you know, sometimes handicap jokes are funny!

I think this is kind of the same thing. If they want to make fun of an American trying to learn Japanese they can, but fact is, they're probably laughing at a very wealthy business man who's learning the language to expand his business in Japan... more successful than a lot of those McDonalds fans will ever be...

I agree that it's debatable, especially depending on where you live. However, I still am a little put off by people whose minds are absolutely blown that I could possibly speak more than three words of Japanese. (And other similar examples)

However, my attitude is that Japan is overall become much much more friendly to foreigners, the most shining example being recently all the chopsticks packets have warnings in English on them, "Danger! The toothpick inside might hurt you!", cuz we're famous for stabbing ourselves on it ;) I sure did on my first day in Japan... hehe.

Kind of a funny shining example. Of course there's bigger ones like foreigners being placed in the same pension/insurance category as the natives and such, but yeah.

Anyway, back on topic, I'll post that commercial when it hits the intertubes.

I like this.

That warning is there in Japanese as well, it's just a translation, not there in English because foreigners are particularly likely to stab themselves on the toothpick.

The foreigners' rights activist Arudou Debito has been up in arms about Mr. James, and there has even been an article in Time magazine apparently. Lots of people have complained to McDonalds headquarters in both Japan and US about the negative stereotyping. Google for Debito's website if you're interested.

I am not too bothered really, I just think Mr. James is an unattractive person to have on TV commercials and life-size cardboard cutouts all over the place, so I hope he goes away soon.

Judging by some of the posts in this "Living in Japan" subforum, I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. James was a member of this forum. :D

well,... you could say "white foreigners" are more open than asians. Aren't asians more conservative against PDA? I mean, about a month ago i saw a couple in a movie theater making out heavily and it was a public movie theater. (also very crowded)

So...? I can kinda see where Asians are going to get their examples from(Bad ones but still examples) and make parody commercials out of them. get it?