Is this article racist to Japanese?

That first bit about pronunciation was uncalled for. It definitely makes me think of how people make fun of Japanese who struggle with differentiating between the L and R sounds in other languages (I would just LOVE to see those people try to speak Japanese...). So yeah, I think you're spot on -- that's an unnecessary "Engrish" joke.

I also have to say that, while the tone of the article doesn't strike me as racist, I'm getting awfully tired of all the coverage of "weird" things in Japan. There's this perception in the world that Japan is strange, weird, or sick, and articles like this really don't do anything to help that.

I think the "Rora" part is a bit out of line, but the rest is interesting. I didn't think it was racist.

I don't think this writer is making fun of Japanese pronunciation; he just didn't know how to spell it in English. But at least, he can recognize that Japanese ラ and ロ are different from English. That's it.
So, the line is not even a joke.

As to the content of the article, reporters are always looking for something unusual. They are expected to send unusual articles back home. Who is going to read "ordinary" news?

If a cat named Lola/Rola is your standard of racist behaviour, what word are you going to use when someone does something truly offensive? The fact is the Japanese media has the same sort of story whenever someone comes up with some sort of new unusual business. When someone came up with the magna kissa or the couple kissa that was covered in the Japanese weeklies. I spent a decade of my life in Japan and I am still interested in the latest permutation in the coffee shop business.

I have no idea why you consider it is racism oriented expression.

That kind of expression is very common and popular in British. I don't think British are mainly racist. Most of them are just ironic and arrogant but innocent and curious people there.

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Answering that question could require a psychologist or perchance a literature professorbut in case you're asking my opinion properly... i think of he's a racist in a diverse way. i think of he's basically too patriotic that he look at his us of a and race as too good its splendid. Being a Filipino myself, i replaced into offended by potential of that article. i think of its no longer written in satire because of the fact if it replaced into, it incredibly is done in adverse flavor. He already apologized to the Filipino human beings yet lower back he did it in undesirable flavor by potential of asserting "all of us are servants of God" to lower back his assertion asserting Philippines is a rustic of servants. its like he's under estimating Filipino intelligence. the be conscious servant replaced into utilized in a diverse mild in the two statements. I have not have been given something against mr. Tsao and the chinese language human beings, iin factim a million/2 of what they're... adult males its like my parents are combating over me after a nasty divorce. Mr. Tsao could desire to have been very careful with what he write interior the destiny, as a substitute of calming the rigidity over the pacific, he heated issues up. i've got self belief he's in no place to lecture everyone on the subject of the tTerritorialrights. its been a gas of warfare 2d to faith. despite attracts the line bBetweentwo countries will take a lot of international and nautical regulations and ancestral history. China could ppulverizedany small third international us of a in a snap. besides the incontrovertible fact that it ddoesn'tmean u can and able ddoesn'tgive you the fabulous to achieve this, so does writing a hate literature.

I'm not offended by the joke, it is a typical japanese problem "r and l".
kind of funny.

The story is not so bad, but a point of view is biased that Japanese are the people who use money for strange things. Those people exit, but....yes they are some extremes.
I felt it is a little bit different from "racism" though. The writer chose these topics to look his article "edgy" I guess.

I don't think the writer has any racist intention but I absolutely agree with what someone wrote above...

"I'm getting awfully tired of all the coverage of "weird" things in Japan. There's this perception in the world that Japan is strange, weird, or sick, and articles like this really don't do anything to help that."

I mean, the UK has "weird and sick" things too. Just the other day, I noticed, for the first time, a "sex and fetish" shop right next to the Indian restaurant I frequent. And Taiwan has "wacky" phenomena like betel nut beauties...

I think the cat place is a good business idea, though I personally wouldn't be willing to spend so much money just to pet a cat. Every time I go back to Taiwan, however, I visit my aunt's house to stroke her super-cute cats!

No it isn't racist. The l/r thing is not racist as in English it would be spelt Lola but in Japanese romaji it would be Rora. If anything it doesn't give it more of a Japanese pronunciation, but the opposite! It is also a real problem for English learners in Japan.

As for "introducing very unusual (and weird) business as if it is common in Japan.", come on! Japan is probably one of the weirdest places to live in the world! Where else can you see people dressed up as little bo peep (Harajuku), businessmen dancing (or even better hand dancing) in the street to girls in mini skirts singing out of tune(Akihabara), crowds being orchestrated by conductors to sing in unison (baseball) or hundreds of kids dressed as sailors (school!). Japan is just plain weird, but that is one of the most fascinating things about it.