Video of Hiroshima Mazda Employee Imitating Wheelchair User Starts Social Media Firestorm in Japan

By Barrier Free Japan and Yahoo! Japan 

May 1 2023

JAPAN – In response to the spread of a video of a Hiroshima Mazda employee in an electric wheelchair imitating a disabled person and laughing, which caused a firestorm, Hiroshima Mazda released a written statement on April 30 explaining that it never intended to make fun of the disabled person.

The video in question appears to have originally been posted on “TikTok,” but in late April a third party shared it on Twitter in the form of criticism of a Hiroshima Mazda employee playing with an electric wheelchair to imitate a disabled person.

The video was so bad that it caused a firestorm because it showed a man in a uniform with the “MAZDA” logo on it riding in an electric wheelchair and operating it by tilting his head while slightly sticking out his lips and tongue as if imitating a disabled person, and the filmer who saw it laughed and said, “One more time!

@okashi75

広島マツダの車いすに関して、広島マツダに電話で問合せしてみた#広島マツダ#車いす#flower #jisoo

♬ 꽃 – JISOO

In response to the video, Twitter users said, “I didn’t want to see it if possible. Very disappointing,” “I was thinking of switching to a Mazda vehicle, but after seeing this, I decided not to,” and “What is going on with Mazda’s corporate compliance?”

(Hiroshima Mazda is a dealer for the automaker Mazda, but it is a separate company with independent capital).