Judging by the caricature with which All Nippon Airways chose to depict westerners in a 30-second television ad this week you would think it was the 19th century and Commodore Perry had just hoved into view off the Port of Tokyo to initiate Japan’s opening up to outside influence.
The commercial shows two ANA pilots discussing new international routes departing from Haneda airport. When one says Japanese people should try to change their image abroad, his colleague dons a blonde wig and outsized rubber nose, a common gag for characterising westerners in Japan.
The slot was intended for a Japanese audience but ANA had misjudged the potential, in an era of web-based indignation, for the ad to go viral and be condemned for racially stereotyping foreigners.