The trivialization of sexual harassment in Japanese mascot culture: Japanese audience responses to YouTube videos of Kumamon

Studies indicate that, in Japan, sexual harassment is rarely reported because of a sociocultural pressure to maintain harmony and a patriarchal expectation for women to be passive. Sexual harassment also remains visible and unregulated in online spaces. It is particularly prevalent in videos of yuru-kyara (mascots) in which acts, such as lifting skirts, are framed as humorous. To explore the influence of such acts on Japanese audiences’ views of sexual harassment, this article examines comments underneath YouTube videos of Kumamon and situates them in a Japanese sociocultural context through a consideration of gender norms, the workplace environment, and contemporary feminism. Drawing on feminist work about sexual harassment and studies on its mediation, we argue that the comments demonstrate that the humor in Kumamon’s videos, alongside his characteristics as a yuru-kyara, trivialize sexual harassment and harmfully contribute to sexist cultural norms in Japan. However, our findings also reveal that, since 2019, Japanese YouTube users have begun to openly condemn Kumamon’s “cheeky” behavior. This indicates that, after being initially hesitant to respond to the #MeToo movement, people in Japan are now beginning to defy cultural norms by calling out sexual harassment online.