Japanese band behind One Piece: Red song rolls back “racist” music video depicting Columbus and apes 

The popular Japanese band Mrs. GREEN APPLE unpublished the music video for their new song “Columbus” only a day after its release due to an outrage from fans. The band and music label have issued a statement acknowledging that the music video contained “expressions that lack understanding of historical and cultural backgrounds” and apologized for greenlighting and publishing it in the first place. 

The offending music video showed Mrs. Green Apple’s three members dressed in costumes representing Columbus, Napoleon and Beethoven respectively. The concept of the video was to depict an imaginary scenario of the three historical figures from different eras travelling together. 

In the video, the trio is seen “discovering” an island inhabited by apes. They have a house party with the apes and “educate” them in music, writing, and sciences. An ape can be seen pulling Beethoven in a carriage. 

Japanese users have criticized the dated depiction of Columbus that ignores his role in initiating the slave trade, as well as the implication of the “New World” he discovers being shown as inhabited by apes. As Japanese people have historically been targets of ethnic slurs such as “yellow monkey,” the imagery of the three Japanese bandsmen cosplaying as white men and civilizing apes was seen as distasteful by many. In addition, as the song and video are a tie-in with Coca Cola (Coke Studio), people are even more confused as to why the concept was approved and released to the public.