The Sino-Japanese conflict, which has intensified since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi recently hinted at “military intervention in the event of an emergency in Taiwan,” is rapidly spreading to the entertainment industry.
According to Hong Kong’s Chengdu Daily and China News Service on the 19th, Chinese music platform QQ Music announced that the Guangzhou fanmeeting of Japanese boy group JO1 had been canceled due to “force majeure.”.
JO1 is an 11-member group that debuted through the first season of “Produce 101 Japan” and is under Laphone Entertainment, a joint venture between CJ ENM and Japan’s Yoshimoto Kogyo.
On the other hand, in Japan , girl group aespa, which includes Chinese member Ning Ning, has been targeted.
Following news of Ningning’s appearance on NHK’s year-end special “Kōhaku Uta Gassen,” a petition calling for her appearance to be cancelled appeared on the global petition platform Change.org on the 17th.
Ningning previously sparked controversy on social media for posting a image reminiscent of the atomic bomb’s “mushroom cloud,” and she is once again facing criticism amidst the diplomatic row.
The petition surpassed 50,000 signatures in 24 hours and has now grown to 70,000. The petitioner stated
“Kōhaku Uta Gassen is a representative event of Japan […] If such words and actions that ignore historical awareness are allowed to continue, it will harm Japan’s international image and the victims of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.”
As the conflict between China and Japan shows signs of prolonging, and the repercussions spread to the cultural and entertainment sectors, even involving K-pop artists, attention is focused on how this will affect future cultural exchanges between Korea and Japan.
Source: Sport Seoul
