Car firm forced to apologise over claim its name contained racial slur

A vehicle import business has issued an apology after the advertising watchdog concluded its company name was likely to result in serious racial offence.

Jap Car South expressed regret to “any members of the public” who were offended by the inclusion of the word “Jap” in its title.

That followed a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) claiming that it was a harmful and offensive racial slur.

On the business’s website, a logo featured the text “Jap Car South Ltd” superimposed over a stylised sun, similar to the Japanese rising sun flag.

The firm, which has been in operation since 2020, said it deals directly with the Japanese market when purchasing vehicles.

It explained that “Jap” was used as an abbreviation for “Japan” or “Japanese”, adding it had not previously received feedback in the UK or Japan that the name was offensive or could cause offence.

The company said that it chose the title because it sold imported Japanese cars, had not intended to cause offence, and did not wish to do so in future.

However, the ASA that the lack of prior feedback was not determinative of the potential impact on consumers.

The watchdog said: “We understood that the word ‘Jap’ became particularly associated with anti-Japanese sentiment during and after the Second World War.

“We further understood that it had a history of use as a derogatory term for Japanese people and people of Japanese heritage, and was widely recognised as a racial slur.

“Because of those associations, we considered that its use in a marketing communication was likely to cause serious offence on the grounds of race.”

The ASA found that the stylised sun image reinforced the derogatory reference to Japanese identity and added to the offensive impact of the ad.

It added: “We also understood that while the image was legitimately used in various facets of public life in Japan, some consumers were likely to associate it with the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army, and Japanese military aggression during the Second World War.

“In the context of its use alongside the term ‘Jap’, we considered that association was likely to further exacerbate the offence caused by the wording.”

The ASA said the ad must not appear again and told the firm to “avoid causing serious offence on the grounds of race in future marketing communications”.