Lady Gaga is currently terrorizing Japan, and not only is she annoying the country’s citizens, she’s also offending them in a major way. You see, in the photo above, she’s wearing an outfit with the Korean characters ?? printed on it. That translates to “color”, which is rather innocuous in and of itself… except it’s not in Japanese and some fans seem to think that Gaga can’t tell the difference between Asian countries.
A thread has appeared on 2ch, Japan’s most popular online forum, titled: “Lady Gaga, Who’s Visiting Japan, Is Wandering Around Roppongi in Clothes with Korean Characters. This Proves That From the White Person’s Point of View, Japan and Korea are the Same.” Oh dear.
Here are some of the comments within that thread:
“She thinks South Korea and Japan are the same.”
“Wearing clothes with Korean characters and sauntering about Roppongi is giving hate to Japan.”
“Did Japan do something to her?”
“Get outta here, you shitty white person.”
“Is she trying to pick a fight with a Japanese person? lol”
“Yep, just a dumb American.”
“This kind of makes me not like her.”
“It can’t be helped. But it’s a little sad she’ can recognize Japanese.”
“Well, I have no clue about the difference between the U.S. and the U.K.”
“Certainly looks like between Japan and South Korea, Gaga likes Korea more.”
“Her songs are great. Truly great.”
“Make no mistake, when Gaga is in South Korea, she’ll wear clothes with Japanese and the Rising Sun!”
“She probably just thinks those characters are a symbol. No biggie.”
“Waaah. This certainly makes her less cool.”
Apparently 2ch veers semi-conservative and Japan and South Korea aren’t on the best of terms at the moment, so that may be increasing this situation. Do I think Lady Gaga thinks all Asian countries are the same? I don’t know, some people are just ignorant like that. However, do I think she actually set out to offend anyone or gave much thought to this? Not really. Not thinking isn’t really an excuse (and in fact is often the problem in situations like this), but I do think she’s done far more blatantly offensive things in her time.
No, I completely get where those people are coming from. Seriously, couldn’t she look at what she was wearing? “Yeah yeah I’m totes into Japanese fashion” *dons clothes with messages in Korean*. It would be one thing if she were wearing jeans and a white tee with Korean on it, but she’s obviously going for the whole wacky look we in the West associate with Japan (blech) and chooses something with Korean on it. It’s clearly offensive. We might not see it as such but I know they will. Also, I have been to that shop she’s in, it’s called Don Quijote and it’s GREAT. If you ever go to Tokyo find one of those (there are several), and have a browse.
+1
She cares enoough to hire someone art-poppy and more bonkers than her to create this unoriginal art-poppy crap for her.. so, blame the overwrought, poorly treated, totally bored messenger amirite..
Yep the acts of a single person definitely “prove” a blanket statement about an entire nation. I guess that means everyone in Japan is as ignorant as the OP. See what I did there. ;)
I worry that the main reason this is so offensive is more to do with Japanese feelings against Korea. In which case, screw them. Consider, if you saw an Asian person in an English speaking country wearing western clothing with French writing on it, would it bother you? Would you be pointing out how stupid they are and what a faux pas it was?