A few month ago a commercial by NIKE JAPAN was released on its YouTube channel. The video titled “動かしつづける。自分を。未来を。扁” went viral in Japan with two split sides of opinions, it went so viral that even the media such as online news that we see on a daily basis were talking about the 2 complete opposing stances towards the commercial.

What is it about? It is about 3 teenage girls with different life background; Zainichi-Korean girl, Japanese girl, and half a black and Japanese girl, struggling to figure out WHO THEY ARE, WHAT THEY CAN DO, IF THEY ARE GOOD ENOUGH, WHTHER IF THEY ARE “NORMAL”, IF IT’S OK TO BE JUST AS HOW IT IS, etc. They struggle to decide if they should just FIT IN WITH THE OTHERS, ACT IN A WAY THAT MAKE OTHERS LIKE THEM, ENDURE, TELL THEMSELVES THAT THEY DON’T CARE EVEN IF THEY ACTUALLY DO, etc. But, at the end they decided to just be who they are.

In my opinion, since Japan is a country with not many racial, cultural diversity, the minorities tend to stand out in a group. This cause struggles in identity determination and creation within them. They are scared to express who they truly are because everyone else is quite similar.