The Quixotic Dream of Japanese Conservatives, Egged on by White Supremacists, to Keep Japan Monocultural and Monoethnic

Recently, Nike released a short advertisement on Youtube that depicts three Japanese young athletes of non-mainstream ethnic identities (two Korean, one half-black) overcoming discrimination and bullying through their participation in their schools' and communities' soccer teams. Despite the intention of crafting a universal message of social inclusion in a country grasping an unprecedented question of what to make of an increase in Japanese residents of non-Japanese descent. The ad was picked up by international media outlets as a sign of the country's continued reorientation from centuries of self-designated ethnic and cultural homogeneity.

Unfortunately, at least a segment of the Japanese general public was clearly unready for Nike's intentions and message. Within days of the ad's posting, it garnered more than 30,000 down votes and thousands of negative messages from Japanese netizens, who promised to stop buying Nike products and condemned the company for introducing "unpleasant" elements into the "simple fun" of sports. The negative reactions, themselves picked up by foreign media but largely received a silent treatment in conservative domestic ones, illustrated once again the long road ahead for the country to embrace diversity at a grassroots level.

But perhaps even more disturbing than the negative comments from the Japanese in reaction to the Nike ad is a slew of non-Japanese, particular white, commentators, who criticized Nike for its "crude" attempt to erase the "purity" and "uniqueness" of Japanese culture through attempts to shame the country into accepting non-Japanese people and values. Such individuals praised Japan's steadfast refusal to accept mass migration from beyond its borders, noting that the lack of large immigrant flows contributed to the country's social cohesion while others suffer from social and political divisions that are often driven by racial differences.

There is a logic behind the oddity of what can generally be called a bunch of white supremacists praising Japan. And this phenomenon is certainly not limited to this Nike ad in particular. While detecting the idea of Japanese, or any other non-white culture making inroads into their home countries, these individuals have come to see the Japanese governments' toughness in ensuring that foreigners, particularly penniless refugees, planting their roots in the country, as something worthy of emulation by other governments. They see the largesse many Western governments have shown in accepting so many individuals, who may not even share the majority's values, as a danger to society that Japan has so far been able to avoid.

The presence of such non-Japanese supporters of the Japanese general public's refusal to accept diversity at home can only do a disservice to the country as it faces a critical demographic, and thus, socioeconomic juncture. Domestic terrorism by native-born minorities in Western countries, best exemplified by the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, seems to be vindicating the opponents of accepting as residents and citizens those who do not look and think the same way as the majority, both among the Japanese and the non-Japanese. Yet, the portrayal of Japan as a monocultural paradise free of interethnic conflicts does not help at all in solving the country's relentless march toward depopulation and, as a result, economic irrelevance.

Moreover, the assistance of Japan's general public in endorsing ethnic homogeneity only continues to push the country away from democratic ideals that the government purportedly supports. It is not difficult to imagine the disenfranchisement of minorities in a more ethnonationalist Japan happening in a similar fashion as the disparagement of blacks in Trump's blatantly racist America or that of Muslims run by Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP. Worse yet, as foreigners continue to increase in Japan, the government may evoke the language of the majority being besieged by dangerous minorities bent on destroying social order, not unlike the language used by Putin to promote Orthodox Russian, and by extension, white European, supremacy. 

In a country generally defined by popular apathy toward politics and especially matters related to race, popularly disseminated digital content like the new Nike ad is a rare opportunity to voice opposition to the unproductive bigotry of the conservative Japanese and their white supremacist supporters. In a country where few are willing to speak publicly using their real names for fear of sticking out, and few have any personal experience with foreigners, supporting the Nike ad, even with a simple like to drown out all the "thumbs-downs," when done in significant numbers, evoke collective confidence, not the least among the country's non-Japanese populations, that most people here are not against their presence in any way.

And that show of public support for diversity at the grassroots level is not just good for foreigners here, but in many ways, the only real option for the country to move forward. As much as the opponents of foreign presence in Japan think otherwise, a monocultural and monoethnic Japan is no longer an option. As the number of Japanese people continues to decline and make up an ever-smaller percentage of humanity, Japanese companies and people will need to integrate further with non-Japanese people to maintain a relatively high standard of living. But if the country cannot even handle an ad talking about three bullied "foreign" kids with soccer balls, how is it ready to handle a future where most people they deal with will not be Japanese?