{"id":60824,"date":"2025-04-29T17:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/60824\/"},"modified":"2025-04-29T17:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:58:11","slug":"greater-manchester-restaurant-forced-to-issue-apology-over-deeply-hurtful-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/60824\/","title":{"rendered":"Greater Manchester restaurant forced to issue apology over ‘deeply hurtful’ name"},"content":{"rendered":"

The restaurant said it was ‘never our intention’ to offend people and ‘we are truly sorry for the pain it caused’\"TheThe Japanese restaurant opened its doors in Cheadle Hulme in December<\/p>\n

A Japanese restaurant<\/a> in Greater Manchester has been forced to apologise after receiving a backlash over its \u2018very offensive\u2019 name.<\/p>\n

JAP TO GO opened on Monmouth Road in Cheadle Hulme<\/a> in December, but has caused a stir in recent months over its choice of name, which many have said bears too much resemblance to an ethnic slur.<\/p>\n

Owners behind the Stockport<\/a> restaurant, which serves the likes of poke bowls, bao buns and katsu curries, said the first part of its name is meant to stand for Japanese Authentic Perfection, but locals in the area said the name is \u2018offensive and ignorant\u2019.<\/p>\n

Calling out the restaurant on social media, one person said: \u201cIt is a very offensive word to Japanese people so it would be appropriate if you change the name and never use the word as stand for Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another said: \u201cHow could you possibly think this was acceptable? You claim it\u2019s out of \u201crespect\u201d? Calling us [the name] is not respectful. It\u2019s offensive and ignorant.\u201d<\/p>\n

JAP TO GO opened on Monmouth Road in Cheadle Hulme in December, but has caused a stir in recent months over its choice of name, which many have said bears too much resemblance to an ethnic slur<\/p>\n

Speaking of the owner\u2019s claims behind the meaning of its name, one other commented: \u201cJapanese authentic perfection??? That doesn\u2019t even sound like proper English. No one will guess it\u2019s Japanese Authentic Perfection when they see [it].\u201d<\/p>\n

Restaurant owner Karim Mansour has now said that he \u2018fully understands the reason for the criticism\u2019 and has apologised for any upset that the name of the venue has caused.<\/p>\n

In a statement issued to the Manchester Evening News<\/a>, he said: \u201cWe\u2019ve heard your feedback, and we want to offer our sincere apology to those who have been hurt or offended by our restaurant\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Calling out the restaurant on social media, one person said: \u201cIt is a very offensive word to Japanese people so it would be appropriate if you change the name and never use the word as stand for Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we opened \u201cJAP TO GO,\u201d our intention was never to cause harm. The name was originally meant to represent: J \u2013 Japanese, A \u2013 Authentic, P \u2013 Perfection.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut regardless of that original meaning, we now understand the impact the name has had. I want to speak from the heart and share where I stand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always loved and respected Japanese people, culture, and food. My goal in opening this restaurant was to celebrate and share the beauty of Japanese cuisine and tradition with my local community.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe restaurant has been called ‘offensive and ignorant’ in backlash over its name<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve visited, you\u2019ve likely seen this reflected in many small details \u2014 from the care we put into our food, to things like Japanese flag colouring sheets for children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now fully understand that the name of our restaurant has upset and hurt many people \u2014 especially in the Japanese community \u2014 and I want to say clearly: that was never our intention, and we are truly sorry for the pain it caused.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, despite receiving calls to rename the venue, Karim has said he is \u2018currently not in the financial position\u2019 to be able to change its name. He said he was committed to rebranding when it is possible to do so.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cAs a small independent business, we are currently not in the financial position to make a full rebrand immediately. However, we are fully committed to changing the name and moving forward with greater care, humility, and respect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re listening. We\u2019re learning. And we hope to move forward together \u2014 with humility and care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The restaurant said it was ‘never our intention’ to offend people and ‘we are truly sorry for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[25712,31463,51,17753,8886,280,1288,281,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-60824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-asian-communities","9":"tag-asian-news","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-cheadle-and-cheadle-hulme","12":"tag-manchester-restaurants","13":"tag-restaurants","14":"tag-stockport","15":"tag-street-food","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114422553293555030","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}