A family-run car dealership has been forced to apologise for its own name after the advertising watchdog found it was likely to cause “serious racial offence”.
Car import firm Jap Car South said sorry to “any members of the public” who were offended by the use of “Jap” in the firm’s name.
A single complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) determined the car importer’s name included a harmful and offensive racial slur.
The firm’s logo also included a logo of a stylised sun, similar to the Japanese rising sun flag, with the text Jap Car South Ltd superimposed on it.
The family business has been trading since 2020, dealing directly with the Japanese market when purchasing vehicles.
Its website currently includes listings for Nissan and Honda cars.
The Southampton-based business said Jap had been used as a shortened form of Japan or Japanese, and it had not previously received any feedback in Japan or the UK that the name was offensive or could cause offence.
The firm said it had chosen the name because they sold Japanese imported cars, adding that they had not intended to cause offence, and did not wish to do so in future.
Japanese car enthusiasts now tend to use the phrase JDM (Japanese domestic market) rather than “Jap car” today.
Jap Car South has been made to apologise for its logo
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ADVERTISING STANDARDS AUTHORITY
But the ASA said the fact the company had not previously been given the feedback was not “determinative of the likely effect on consumers”.
The watchdog said: “We understood that the word ‘Jap’ became particularly associated with anti-Japanese sentiment during and after the Second World War.
“We further understood that it had a history of use as a derogatory term for Japanese people and people of Japanese heritage, and was widely recognised as a racial slur.
“Because of those associations, we considered that its use in a marketing communication was likely to cause serious offence on the grounds of race.”
The ASA said the imagery similar to the Japanese rising sun had added to the ad’s offense
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GOOGLE MAPS
The ASA said imagery similar to the Japanese rising sun added to the offensive impact of the ad.
It added: “We also understood that while the image was legitimately used in various facets of public life in Japan, some consumers were likely to associate it with the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army, and Japanese military aggression during the Second World War.”
Asian countries, including South Korea and China, view the rising sun flag as an offensive symbol comparable to a Nazi swastika.
South Korea has previously called for it to be banned, accusing the flag of being a reminder of Japanese atrocities.
The flag is still used as the Japanese naval ensign today.
The ‘rising sun’ flag is still used as the Japanese naval ensign today
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REUTERS
The ASA added: “In the context of its use alongside the term ‘Jap’, we considered that association was likely to further exacerbate the offence caused by the wording.”
The watchdog has now said the ad must not appear again.
The company has also been ordered to “avoid causing serious offence on the grounds of race in future marketing communications”.
At the time of writing, the company has not changed its branding.
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