‘My Caucasian counterpart’: Black TikToker calls out Japanese purikura photo booth for lightening her skin

A biracial Black and Asian TikTok user living in Tokyo took to social media after a purikura photo booth made her look as light as her Japanese relatives.

The TikTok user, @burnthimawari, posted a video showing the picture she took with her cousin and mother in Japan. In the picture, the three women all have the same pale skin tone.

“I have a bone to pick with Japan’s purikura because look at this,” she says at the beginning of her video. She then points to the picture behind her and says, “What in the Nikita Dragun?”

Her TikTok has been viewed over 975,000 times and liked more than 235,000 times since it was first uploaded on Tuesday. It also attracted more than 1,400 comments, with some users surprised to discover that the person in the left of the picture was @burnthimawari.

“When the picture was printed I was like ‘who’s goddamn white Baby is that,’” she wrote in one of the TikTok’s comments. “MY CAUCASIAN COUNTERPART APPARENTLY,” she wrote in another.

Purikura, or purinto kurabu (“print club”), is a Japanese photo sticker booth popular among younger generations, according to All About Japan. Unlike traditional photo booths, purikura is known for its wacky editing, colorful effects, stickers, frames and more.

In response to @burnthimawari’s video, one TikTok user wrote: “Basically to [people] who have never been in a purikura, they always buffer and overblow the saturation and make [your] eyes humongous. It’s like a photobooth. You get to choose the filter though.”

Featured Image via @burnthimawari

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