Japanese Marathon Translator Under Fire for Calling African Athletes ‘Cute Chimpanzees’

The unnamed woman, believed to be in her 50s and who has worked with athletes from Africa including Morocco, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa, made the comment in her now-deleted blog, according to NHK News Web via SoraNews24.

 

In her entry, which she wrote on February 10 — seven days after the marathon ended — the woman wrote: “It felt like communicating with cavemen,” adding, “They were shy chimpanzees at first, but little by little they opened up.”

Then, in a video, she added a caption of her and the athletes saying “cute chimpanzees.”

Her blog post was eventually discovered and later reported to the office she worked with.

She then closed down the blog and admitted to creating the post: “I didn’t have any feelings of racism or malicious intent. I regret my thoughtless choice of words.”

“The blog post was extremely inappropriate, and we deeply apologize to the athletes and all the people who saw it,” the office wrote in its apology letter. “We will strive from now on to stress the importance of responsibility to our volunteers, and to educate them.”

Japanese netizens reacted negatively to the woman’s comments:

Others also feared that the country would be judged because of the actions of one person.

Images Screenshot via YouTube / hades channel