ばか! Bad Taste or Just Bad Judgement?

Oh Merde! Here we go again! Last year on American Mishima we made a post about a small group of unruly fans in South Korea using the Tohoku Disaster of 3/11 as a way to get at visiting Japanese Soccer teams.For those not familiar with what goes on in Football-aka Soccer, Heckling from Soccer Supporters be it the good, the bad, and the utterly tasteless is just part Football Culture. But sometimes people go too far and a line gets crossed. Well this week in France after Japan's National Team the Samurai Blue defeated the French National Team 1-0, France 2 host Laurent Ruquier stirred that pot of controversy once again with this Photoshopped picture of Goal Keeper Eiji Kawashima calling it the "Fukushima Effect." Naturally this drew protest from both the Japanese Government and Japan's Football Federation. The France 2 host in his defense explained he was merely offering Kawashima praise. Praise or racism? We can't tell what Ruquier's real motivations were. While we don't speak anything beyond a few basic greetings learned in high school French class, chances are this didn't get many laughs over there. While no country likes to lose on their home turf, comparing a 1-0 WC Qualifier or a International "It's Not Friendly" to a tragedy on the scale of the Tohoku Disaster which killed over 20,000 people is just not cool. While this is just one man's opinion criticizing another, in fairness we will note that the French Media and that in Belgium have regarded Ruquier's actions as purely bad taste. ばか!