What is it with white noses in Japan? Can Japan get past its seeming obsession with whites as long-nosed tengu?

Racializing white bodies is pretty much guaranteed to make a splash, as we saw with Toshiba’s bread maker (which was so good it would turn you into a white person), and ANA’s new international service (which again could turn you white).

Now we get Proctor and Gamble’s new ad for laundry detergent. The detergent smells so wonderful that it makes white people’s noses grow and flap around. These people were already white, so there’s no race-changing going on, just oddly morphing white faces.

So, what is it with white noses in Japan? As a white person with a somewhat prominent proboscis, I’d really like to know. And I’m definitely not buying this brand of detergent. The last thing I need is a bigger nose.

If your clothes stink, do white noses shrink? Cue the George Constanza reference …

For a more detailed look at this issue, visit Arudou Debito’s site, debito.org.