Oops! Austrian textbook error sparks online calls for Japanese to boycott Aussie Beef

Japan’s feisty online community briefly urged a boycott of Aussie Beef — arguably Australia’s best-known export to Japan — after an Austrian school textbook referred to the Sea of Japan as the “East Sea,” a Korean label aimed at helping it forget its past as a Japanese colony, according to a June 28 report from online Japanese news site J-Cast.
Australia, which uses Sea of Japan in its school materials and official documents, had nothing to do with the textbook.
Among the comments posted online were “That Australian mob are simple and will fall for anything,” “Why’s Australia calling it the East Sea if it’s not to their east?” and “Is it OK to boycott Aussie Beef?”
The mix-up was apparently sparked by a Japanese tabloid newspaper headline using the character for Australia (豪） in a story about the Austrian textbook that, when referring to the body of water separating Japan and the Asian mainland, chose to use East Sea, the name Koreans have been lobbying persistently to replace the internationally recognized Sea of Japan.
Japan’s online community has a fierce anti-Korean streak and the news soon reportedly sparked demands to boycott Australian beef in Japan, even though Australia had nothing to do with the issue and steadfastly backs use of the Sea of Japan.
Nonetheless, anti-Australian sentiment is also strong within Japan’s online community due to its perceived anti-Japanese sentiment sparked by opposition to whaling, J-Cast said.
It’s not uncommon for confusion to arise between the names of Australia and Austria.
In this Olympic year, it’s worth noting that when Edwin Flack won gold medals in the first-ever modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, confused officials are said to have raised the flag of Austria (then still a middling-power European empire) and played the Austrian national anthem. (This story is probably apocryphal, but widely believed nonetheless).
On the other hand, Austria has carved out a tourist souvenir niche for itself by creating a “No Kangaroos Here” range of souvenirs.


オーストリアが教科書に「東海」　ネットで反発、なぜか「オージービーフの不買運動」 (Japanese)
Official Aussie Beef site (Japanese)

Cop A Gander At These Rippers Too...

  • Order for Aussie-Made Skim Milk Results in Kangaroo Delivery

    A Chinese woman irked by the poor reputation of powdered skim milk produced in her homeland, got jumpy when her order of Australian-made milk contained more kick than she’d probably bargained for, not quite a boxing kangaroo, but a boxed kangaroo, according to Japanese news site Rocket News. Citing Chinese-language news sources Sina news and ET Today, Rocket says the woman from Qingdao, in China’s Shangdong Province, ordered a box of six cans of Australian-made skim milk through an online shopping site, but only two were delivered with the extra space in the box occupied by a live kangaroo. The kangaroo, which is in good health, was taken into the…

  • |

    ‘You’re Not Taking the Kingswood’…But Japan Did for a Little While

    On this day 70 years ago, Australia launched a domestic automaking industry at Fishermen’s Bend in Melbourne to produce Holden cars. Not many outside Australia that the Great Southern Land once produced cars, and perhaps even fewer still are aware that Oz exported some models to Japan. These weren’t cars assembled in Australia and shipped to the world’s then second-largest car market (as would happen in the late 1980s and 1990s, notably with the Subaru Outback). They were cars made with the intent of attracting Japanese consumers. Ironically, one of the cars marketed was the Mazda Roadpacer, a car slightly adapted from an iconic Australian car, the Holden Kingswood. Holden…

  • Mickey mouse/ミッキーマウス

    Mickey mouse Australian English Lax, frivolous, sloppy, not very good, poor quality. 日本語 中途半端、ルーズ、質が悪い、軽い、手が抜ける、適当。当然、あの同名のディズニー大スターがオーストラリアにも人気者だけど、なぜこのようなネガティブな意味になった理由が不明だ。 Plain English 1) Slack, lazy, lax, incompetent or inconsequential. 2) The megastar and symbol of the Walt Disney stable of companies. An American cultural icon. Strine Dictionary

  • 人参依存症カンガルーが観光客を孟攻撃する

    　オーストラリアを訪ねている数十人が人参やジャンクフードなどに依存しているガンがルーに孟攻撃され、怪我を負っている。 　シドニーから南方にあるマクワリー湖周辺に現象が起こっている。 　餌を与えないように注意されてにも関わらず中国人観光客を中心に訪ねる人の多くがそこに群れを作ったカンガルーなどに食べ物をやっている。 　その結果、カンガルーを中心とした有袋類が主に人参に依存することになった。 　体が要求している人参などをもらわないと、カンガルーが暴力的に反応し、観光客を蹴ったり、噛んだり爪でキズ付けたりしている。 　マクワリー湖観光関係者は、多ヶ国語の注意書き看板の設置などの対応策をとっているが、多くの場合厳守されていないのは現状。 https://youtu.be/TsfgNVFYPak

  • | |

    How Did a Japanese Celebrity Wedding Spark Australia’s Honeymoon Boom?

    郷の豪華な豪州結婚は、なぜオーストラリアへの新婚旅行ブームを生んだのか？ In 1987, millions of Japanese watched one of the country’s biggest pop stars honeymoon in Australia. It wasn’t just celebrity gossip. It became one of the most successful tourism campaigns Australia had ever seen. 1987年、日本を代表する人気歌手・郷ひろみさんと女優・二谷友里恵さんの新婚旅行を何百万人もの日本人がテレビで見ました。それは芸能ニュースでは終わりませんでした。オーストラリア観光史に残る成功例となったのです。 A Wedding Captivates Japan 日本中が注目した結婚 When singer Hiromi Go married actress Yurie Nitani in 1987, it was one of Japan’s biggest entertainment stories. The couple were household names, and public interest in their wedding was enormous. 日本中が注目した結婚 1987年、人気歌手の郷ひろみさんと女優の二谷友里恵さんが結婚しました。 二人は当時を代表するスターであり、その結婚は日本中の注目を集めました。 Australia Saw an Opportunity オーストラリアが注目した The Australian Tourist Commission recognised an opportunity. Instead of simply advertising beaches and sunshine, it invited the newlyweds to spend their honeymoon in Australia. Their journey was filmed for Japanese…