What Snubbing Reveals, Friendship Restores: Norway and Japan (I of II)

In a speech last May addressing the Norwegian Business Forum and Norway-Japan Society in Tokyo, Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik defined the relationship between the two countries by saying, “Norway and Japan are far apart. Yet, we share many values.” It is true that these two very different nations have much common ground. Norway and Japan have both taken a strong stand on the practice of whaling and Japan is Norway’s leading trade partner in Asia, with a healthy demand for Norwegian seafood products and petroleum gas. While this common ground has served as a solid bonding force between the two countries, the friendship has not gone unthreatened in recent years.

Nations, like people, negotiate their relationships through a series of minor trials; boundaries are set and adapted, intentions are analyzed, and standards of expectation put to the test. Friendships between nations and people are tested, not on the battlefield or industrial drives, but on the social give-and-take between two invested parties. This story is concerned with the friendship between Norway and Japan and how that friendship was navigated through two social blunders in national symbolism: the first, a few misguided ad campaigns in Norway and the second, a missed appointment in Japan.

Just prior to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Norwegian company SABA Mölnlycke, a producer of feminine hygiene products, ran a two page ad in the VG, a national daily newspaper in Norway. The ad featured a feminine napkin with a red dot in its center, accompanied by the caption, “We wish good luck to the female athletes participating in Nagano.” The Norwegian embassy in Tokyo was subsequently flooded with calls from angry Japanese citizens who felt the ad to be an inappropriate manipulation of their national symbol: the flag. The Japanese flag consists of a red circle centered on a white background.

The following year, the embassy lines in Tokyo were again flooded with angry calls - this time regarding a television commercial released by Norway’s Braathens Airline. The commercial showed a Japanese man mistaking a piece of lefse for a facial cloth. In the next segment, the same man has evidently learned that lefse is for eating, but is shown patting his belly to indicate fullness when he declines the flight attendants offer of a facial cloth. The slogan: Something happens to you when you’ve flown with Braathens a few times. Though the commercial itself won the Golden Lion Prize for commercials at Cannes, the ad was pulled and an apology was issued by the airline. The airline spokesperson also underscored the importance of understanding that the commercial was not meant to imply that Japanese travelers are helpless, but that they are establishing a travel history with Norway.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic