Why This Topic Landed in Japan

Japan's 2-1 loss to Brazil at the World Cup left emotions raw, and a clearly racist gesture by Brazilian fans and influencers landed right on top of that. When NTV's news program 'news zero' aired footage from its on-site coverage unedited — and later said staff "didn't notice" the discriminatory expression — distrust of the network's editorial checks, fused with a broader "old media" grievance, fanned the fire. Because sensitivity to what even counts as discrimination splits by generation and stance, the argument dragged on rather than resolving.

Key Reaction Themes

  • NTV's broadcast oversight — Suspicion that the network aired a pre-recorded segment unchecked: "It wasn't even live, so was it deliberate?"
  • Split over what counts as racism — Anger at plain discrimination sits beside cool takes that "the slant-eye thing doesn't even work on Japanese" and that the uproar is an overreaction.
  • The Shiogai fallout — A recurring line that a remark by Shiogai sparked the provocation in the first place.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

Note: some comments in this topic contained overt slurs against Chinese, Korean, and Brazilian people; those were excluded individually. The remaining comments are quoted verbatim.

NTV's 'news zero' airs the 'slant-eye' footage uncut

Reactions to NTV airing its pre-recorded on-site footage unchecked and answering that staff "didn't notice."

Sources: Yahoo! news, 2ch

Comments:

  • "This wasn't even live, yet they just aired it normally — made me wonder if it was on purpose."
  • "Wasn't it live? I watched it thinking it couldn't be helped, since I assumed it was live."
  • "Maybe Westerners do it knowing it's racist, while Latin Americans don't even realize it's racist?"
  • "As journalism, airing the local reaction as-is is correct; the ones who deserve blame are the people who discriminated."
  • "Honestly, until people said the slant-eye thing was a slur, I never even noticed."
  • "There are Brazilians with common sense too; you shouldn't lump them all together."
  • "I was watching this — they were doing the discriminatory pose totally casually."
  • "Some genuinely do it with no malice; Japanese people should also stop complimenting white people on their high noses."
  • "It's basically Shiogai's fault — the Shiogai gesture."

Brazilian fans and influencers pile on, and the "diplomatic breakup" uproar

Reactions to Brazilian fans and influencers spreading taunts to the point that people joked "Japan and Brazil are about to sever ties."

Sources: 2ch

Comments:

  • "Japanese people are getting mocked way too hard, lol."
  • "Not sure why, but this slant-eye pose is apparently believed to 'work' on Asians."
  • "It seems to work on Koreans, though."
  • "They're doing it looking like they're having an absolute blast, lol."
  • "Hardly any Japanese have narrow eyes, so there's no way it works, lol."
  • "True — just doing this makes everyone look like Shiogai."
  • "They probably cheered when Korea lost, too."
  • "Brazilians are surprisingly persistent; I thought they had a more easygoing temperament."
  • "Shiogai supposedly got a million messages, but even that's under 0.5% of Brazil's population."
  • "It's just soccer-loving idiots on both sides going at each other."