This is funny stuff! Apparently McDonalds Japan is using this dorky guy as a specimen of Gaijin mascotry. Makes me think of the PC guy in the Apple commercials. As the Japantoday.com website notes:

Arudo Debito, the chairman of the Foreign Residents and Naturalized Citizens’ Association of Japan, for being “white, dorky and speaking mangled Japanese” which the group feels plays to Japan’s xenophobic tendencies. TIME reports that Debido has officially protested the Mr James campaign with a letter to McDonald’s Corp headquarters in Illinois.

Could you imagine using a dorky Japanese guy to advertise sushi? No? Because hot people eat sushi and nerds eat at McDonalds? Kind of preposterous. Hold on…I eat both…wait…am I going to have an identity crisis?