Animal Crossing: New Horizons has introduced a number of new characters to Nintendo's beloved life simulation. Among them is C.J., an eSports fishing influencer. While there's been some speculation he might be in a relationship with fellow NPC Flick, that's not all there is to the new character. Although in English his name is somewhat more innocuous, in Japanese, it's actually a pun referencing Canadian pop star Justin Bieber, who is known for such musical hits as "Baby."
In the Japanese version of the game, C.J. is called Justin (ジャスティン). When the word "beaver" is put into katakana -- which is the Japanese writing system used to denote foreign or borrowed words, among others -- it reads "ビーバー." Justin Bieber's name, when put into that same writing system, is "ジャスティン" (Justin) and "ビーバー" (Bieber). "Beaver" and "Bieber" are thus written and pronounced identically. Hence, C.J., in Japanese, is named Justin and a beaver/Bieber. Japanese players on Twitter definitely caught the reference to Justin Bieber, too.
That's also not where the similarities end. C.J.'s combination of a vest and hoodie also bears some resemblance to those Bieber has historically worn. The two also have quite light hair. Although they're obviously not carbon copies of one another -- Justin Bieber is not, in fact, a beaver -- there do seem to be a few references to the pop star in C.J.'s appearance, even if they're just quick nods.
In terms of how the two actually function in their worlds, they really couldn't be much more different. Bieber is a pop star, which generally does not involve much fishing. C.J., on the other hand, is an expert at the sport in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In addition to hosting a fishing tournament, C.J. also buys fish from the player at a significant markup, allowing them to make more money than they would otherwise receive selling their catches to Tommy and Timmy, the island's resident merchants.
Other than being a clever pun, there isn't much more to C.J.'s Japanese name being Justin. The Animal Crossing series features a ton of puns, both in English and its native Japanese. Tom Nook, for example, is a tanuki -- a sort of Japanese raccoon dog. His name in Japanese, Tanukichi, makes that pun a lot more clear.
Overall, Animal Crossing is meant to be a fun life sim that takes players away from the stresses of real life to put them in crippling debt to a tanuki. Still that doesn't mean Nintendo can't sneak in a reference to one of the world's biggest pop stars once in awhile.