All Nippon Airways, the Japanese airline that has been criticised for making an apparent "offensive" as well as "racist" commercial for itself, issues an apology for it.

ANA made a 30-seceond advert for its company that claimed that it would change the image of Japan. The commercial was first aired on Saturday, Jan 18, as a part of the company's promotional campaign, while it targeted expanding its services by commencing international flights from Haneda airport in Tokyo. Eventually, it ended up making an apparently racist video which used stereotypes for the westerners by indicating their longer nose and blonde hair.

The commercial shows a couple of ANA uniformed men discussing how exciting it will be to start a service between Hanoi and Vancouver. One of the two refuses to hug each other in order to celebrate the occasion. He calls it a typical "Japanese reaction". Instead, he decides to change the "image of the Japanese". The other uniformed man then says "sure" in an imposed westernised accent. Suddenly, he is seen with a fake longer nose and a blonde wig.

The Independent reports that the English-language Facebook page of the airline was flooded with harsh criticism against the video. One Facebook user, Dave Jenkins, threatened to cancel his mileage club membership as he found the commercial to be "offensive" and "racist." Another user, Vicky Kirk Kobayashi, enquired when the "horrible advert" was going to be taken off the air. Laura Macfarlane believed that the premiere airline of Japan had risked losing a "large percentage" of customers with such an offensive video.

Ryosei Nomura, a spokesperson of the airline, admitted that the company had received many complaints due to the advert. Ms Nomura said that company would like to apologise to every customer who might have felt "uncomfortable" due to the video. The company, on the other hand, thanked those who brought up the issue; AFP reported. However, she said that the company had not yet come up with any decision regarding the advert.