The article referenced recent controversies around the popular anime series Pokemon, Detective Conan and My Hero Academia, saying that “the evil influence of Japanese militarism lives on in sports and culture.”
Last month, a Pokemon card game event that was scheduled at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo for Jan. 31 was canceled after Chinese backlash.
The shrine commemorates the 2.5 million Japanese soldiers who died in war, including 30,304 Taiwanese.
Countries that were targets of Japanese aggression, especially China and the Koreas, see visits to the shrine as a lack of remorse about Japan’s wartime past.
China condemned the Pokemon Co for holding an event at a shrine, with the People’s Daily saying that enterprises “must not make light of the heavy weight of history in the name of entertainment.”
The article also condemned table tennis player Tomokazu Harimoto for praying at the Togo Shrine, which is dedicated to Togo Heihachiro, an admiral in the First Sino-Japanese War who China sees as a pioneer of Japanese militarist expansionism.
It also referenced the Japanese boy band Rampage, whose choreography was previously criticized for resembling the Nazi salute.
Incidents mentioned: