Debito Arudou's Sept. 1 article, "Mr. James, gaijin clown," was written in a balanced and professional manner, and clearly showed that, even in 2009, Japan and Japanese corporations are still more than willing to stereotype non-Japanese as buffoons.
Having lived in Japan for 18 years — nearly half my life — and being bilingual, I agree with the claim that Japanese is not a difficult language, but that speaking with Japanese people is. I can't tell you how many times people in Japan have looked at me as if I had three eyes when I speak fluent Japanese with them. Recently it has been particularly bad. Could this be due partly to the McDonald's Japan (ad campaign)?
All I can say is that I am more than happy to have been showing the movie "Supersize Me" with my university students. For all we know, this is "Mickey D's" attempt at getting back at non-Japanese educators in Japan who have been sharing the "dark side" of a fast-food diet and possibly hurting their bottom line.