One aspect of this whole debacle that might surprise you is that Avril Lavigne is actually tremendously popular in Japan. Upon living there for two years and working with a lot of students, it became clear that Avril is among the most popular of the "Western" artists and her music is widely accessible. I believe she's one of the most popular artists at karaoke joints too and one could actually choose between 70ish of her songs. The thought that Avril Lavigne even has that many songs out there in the pop culture universe is a pretty disconcerting fact.

Another element of interest is that, while her use of Japanese stereotypes is quite offensive here, I wouldn't be surprised if some of her nods to Japanese culture were actually appreciated by a portion of the Japanese population. In my encounters with some of my Japanese students that had never left the country, I was pretty shocked by how little they knew about other cultures - common questions included "Can you use chopsticks?", "Can you eat Japanese food?", and so on and so forth. The fact that she's shown herself eating sushi and using words like "kawaii" would probably get her a fair amount of admiration from her Japanese fanbase. While I'm not surprised that her song and video are being deemed as all sorts of crazy around here, I think it is interesting to note that some people in Japan might actually have a completely different reaction.

Ultimately, though, I think the best course of action is to follow the wise words of Paul Anka in that Halloween Episode of The Simpsons: just don't look, just don't look.

" thoughtless appropriation of popular Japanese culture"

Japanese popular culture is thoughtless appropriation.

The reaction of white men in America might be unanimous, but that doesn't mean it's what the world is saying.
Also, calling her racist while saying 'she's too old to be dressing like that'?!
Your commentary is as repugnant as that video.