TOKYO (dpa) – Dakko-chan (Hugging Baby), which was once Japan’s most popular doll in 1960s, will be back to the Japanese market this spring, after much criticism about the controversial doll.
Back in 1960, the Dakko-chan, a doll that can be attached on the arm as if it is hugging you, became a big hit in Japan. The doll maker Takara Co. sold 2.4 million units in the first six months and 6 million in total until production ended in 1988 after much criticisms overseas that it is a “racist” toy.
The doll was not just black in colour, she had exaggerated negroid features and a straw cape.
Takara defended the doll as saying that the company did not mean to be racist when they designed the doll. It said the product was modeled after sun-tanned children.
The anti-Dakko-chan movement gathered pace after campaigners successfully forced the children’s tale “Little Black Sambo” to be removed from bookstores in 1988 and Takara quietly dropped Dakko-chan from the company log in disgrace and pulled the doll from shop shelves in 1990.
The racial issue was first brought into the public in the late 1980s after then-Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone said in 1986 that the level of intellect in the United States is low because of its large black and Hispanic population.
His much-publicized remarks about American racial minorities whipped up a storm of protest in the United States and led to a string of Japanese companies phasing out racially offensive products and trademarks.
In 1988, Japan’s Hello Kitty products maker Sanrio Ltd. stopped selling its “Sambo” products, which had modeled after the Little Black Sambo character.
Japan’s leading beverage maker Calpis Food Insutry Co. also stopped using its corporate symbol of a thick-lipped black man in 1989.
“Even after such moves by Japanese companies, most Japanese people as well as firms in Japan nowadays are still not aware about discrimination despite the fact that Japan is a leading industrialized nation,” said Toshiji Arita, vice chairman for Association to Stop Racism Against Blacks.
Japan’s racial composition is highly uniform. The only substantial populations of minorities among the country’s 120 million people are roughly 650,000 Koreans and three million burakumin, or “village people”, descendants of a feudal outcast class who are still discriminated against today.
Arita said Japanese have had a strong admiration for Europe and the United States since the end of the World War II.
“Japan has become the world’s second largest economic power but we have still not grown up psychologically to be trusted by other countries like our neighboring Asian nations,” said Arita.
The association official said the new product by Takara would still hurt black people despite the company’s efforts to change the features and adding colours.
Takara said the new doll, named Dakko-chan 21, is like an imaginary animal with a pointed head and tail. It comes in five different colours, including black. Old features such as hugging and winking would remain part of its characteristics.
Takara said the company has decided to introduce the doll as a symbol of human unity and warmth.
“I think the company is bringing back Dakko-chan again to increase its sales after it was in the red in the business year ended March 31, 2000,” said the anti-racism group’s Arita.
Japan’s character goods market has been doing well. Dolls such as Hello Kitty, Doraemon and Pikachu, which have been popular in Japan, all have chubby, roundish faces and bodies. The curvy outlines of their features make people think of the warmth and tenderness that people associate with babies, say the makers.
According to the white paper on Character Licensing for 2000, the industry sold 2.1 trillion yen (18.1 billion dollars) worth of character goods in the Japanese market in the fiscal 1999, which ended March 31, 2000.
Sales are projected to be the same for fiscal 2000. With its inroads into communications tools such as cellular phones, industry officials say the market is expanding.
The report said teenage girls’ purchases make up only 7.5 per cent of the total. The majority of people who purchase such character goods are preschoolers and early elementary school children as well as women in their 20s and 30s.
“About 25.6 per cent of the total who buy such character goods are women in their 20s and 30s and it is the second largest share,” said Kazuo Rikukawa, a director at Character Databank, which conducted the survey.
