The petition against Trader Joe's accused the brand names of perpetuating harmful stereotypes; I briefly explored this thought in the context of Trader Joe-san but I quickly abandoned it. The brand has problems but stereotyping the Japanese isn't among them (if any stereotype was perpetuated, it would be about white people in power).
My exploration took me back to this study I once linked that suggests minority applicants fare better with "whitened" applications. Asians have long changed their names to seem more 'American'; my mom did it, subtly, accepting "June" as a mispronunciation for "Jun". I'm open to the argument that Trader Joe-san reinforces the pressure Asians have long felt to leave their names at home - even if to just fit in - but I didn't see it; I leave it someone to else to work out the connection.
