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The brand, famous for items like its cleansing oil, angered netizens and activist groups after its chairman and CEO Yoshiaki Yoshida used discriminatory language against Koreans in a post on its website, The Korea Herald reports.
In the online column, Yoshida claimed that DHC’s request to place an ad featuring ethnically Korean celebrities that “deserve to be despised for the benefit of Japan” in publications online and offline was rejected by media outlets. He called reports of his racist behaviour an “all-out attack from ethnically Korean, anti-Japanese media” and listed out physical characteristics he claimed to be common among ethnically Korean people.
The most recent column, which remains available on the DHC site, is just one of Yoshida’s many outbursts. In November, he used a racial slur for Koreans when criticising rival Suntory’s hiring of Korean Japanese models, provoking calls for boycotts and protests against the company. According to BuzzFeed Japan, some local governments in the country are considering cutting ties with the company.
