Meet Hindi speaking Japanese girl Mayo Japan, a social media sensation in India

NEW DELHI: Main Hindi bolne wali Japani ladki hun (मैं हिंदी बोलने वाली जापानी लड़की हूँ) – I am a Hindi speaking Japanese girl: It is a very familiar voice of Ms. Mayo HITOMI, better known as Mayo Japan on YouTube & Instagram to millions of social media freaks in India. Erstwhile known as a conservative and closed community, usually Japanese are not seen in public life, especially on foreign soil, and not so much on social media platforms. However, Mayo san is an outstanding exception.

And not so long ago, the viral video of Japan Ambassador SUZUKI Hiroshi dancing to the tunes of Kaavaalaa, a dance song from Rajinikanth’s latest movie Jailer was shot by Japanese YouTuber Mayo san who herself was seen with the Ambassador’s wife Eiko Suzuki along with other embassy staff in the video.

Mayo san (san in Japanese means ji in Hindi) initially started off with teaching Hindi language to Japanese audience on YouTube, but later, following the demand from the Indian audience, started serving Japanese tutorial content in Hindi language for them at her YouTube channel मायो जापान Mayo Japan (@mayojapan). She would also post videos on Japanese culture in cities like Shibuya, and others as well.

However, a turning point came here way when her video on an Indian festival Holi event in Nishikasai city of Japan instantly went viral and fetched her over 50,000 subscribers in a single day. And there no was looking back for Mayo after that as she evolved to vlogging covering events, places, food and also made dancing videos. Generally the total number of views on here YouTube posts accumulate to in lakhs but many have crossed 1-6 crores views also. For example, her video on Megham Karukatha song registered over 6.2 crore (62 million) views. Her posts evoke a huge response from the Indian audience. As a Mayo san fan writes – “@machindrakamble538: जापानी लोग अपनी भाषा जादा पसंद करते है, मायोजी आप जापानी होकर भी हमारी राष्ट्रीय भाषा हिंदी में ब्लाँग चलाती है, यह हमें भारतीय के लीए गर्व की बात है।”

With over three million YouTube subscribers and millions of Instagram and TikTok reel views, Mayo is a social media influencer serving infotainment content in Hindi language. A Hindi language graduate of Osaka University, Japan, she is equally good at speaking English as well. However her journey to become a known social-media celebrity in India was not an easy task.

Mayo comes from a place near Fukuoka city in Japan where she would initially learn classical belle. (Fukuoka and New Delhi have been twin cities for the last 15 years.) However, she took to Hindi language as her major in the Osaka University on the advice of his father Goro HITOMI who was a successful Himalayan climber with a couple of records to his credit. A regular visitor to India, Nepal and Tibet for Himalayan mountaineering. He passed away when Mayo was 17 years old in her school.

“My father advised me to learn Hindi as he wanted me to secure job of interpreter with India-bound Japanese foreign-service professionals or diplomats, or else I could pursue some business in India. During my graduation at Osaka University, I took one year break to learn Hindi language at Kendriya Hindi Sansthan in India,” said Mayo.

After graduation, Mayo secured a consulting job with PWC, Japan but her work profile had nothing to do with Hindi. So she started her YouTube Channel IndoNuma and became to stay connected with India and Hindi language.

“However, it so happened that I started receiving comments from some of the Indian audience that I should create tutorial videos teaching Japanese to Indians using Hindi language as they found my Hindi of very high grade. This prompted me to launch a dedicated Hindi YouTube channel ‘Mayo Japan’ for Indian natives. Now I do informative as well as dancing videos both,” said Mayo.

As an influencer, Mayo also promotes products and services of Japanese companies and brands such as Kai, Bioré, and others. Her post on KAI knifes fetched 62 lakh (6.2 million) views.

Another interesting aspect of Mayo Japan is that she is also continuing to educate her Japanese audience in Japan by serving them Indian content, and make them aware of the Indian culture. Though she doesn’t have a great fan following in Japan as majority of Japanese either do not know about Japan, or they are not too much inclined to know about India.

As regards her future plans Mayo san wants to venture into Bollywood movies or TV series by collaborating with Indian producers in the movie or OTT space. Following the growing craze of Japanese Anime in India, she has launched Ani Mayo Channel (@ani_mayo) in the YouTube space to promote Japanese anime. She already has over 18.4 thousand subscribers of this channel.