Abnormal Summit Caught in A Controversy

[lovely4evr.livejournal.com]

Terada Takuya, the Japanese representative of the show, was replaced by Takeda Hiromitsu on the 27th. As Hiromitsu was entering the conference room, the background music could be heard, displeasing the viewers. Kimigayo was the representative song during the Empire of Japan and its militarism. It has been found out also that Kimigayo was played on the first episode as well.

Article: 'Abnormal Summit' Kimigayo controversy by the staff's thoughtlessness makes viewers mad, 'there are even the demands of cancelling the show'

1. [+936, -20] Ugh, the Korean broadcast even plays Kimigayo now... Cho Hye Ryun was hated to death when she sang along Kimigayo on a Japanese broadcast... And now our country even plays it

2. [+840, -25] Ah... I enjoyed the show so much... I'm so disappointed. Even at the sport matches, they only have the casters talking and mute the anthem... Staff, isn't this too much? This won't be over by just apologizing, seriously...

3. [+832, -88] Cancel this show. Playing Kimigayo on our broadcast? Are they out of their mind? This is my first time of seeing such a thing in my life. Release an apology to the nation and cancel the show

4. [+135, -8] This is not just 'the demands of cancelling the show', they have to cancel it. This was the show I liked the most but despite my love for the members, I'm so embarrassed and enraged by Kimigayo playing on the broadcast. I'm even more pissed at their nonsense apology

5. [+132, -1] The first broadcast to play Kimigayo after the independence

6. [+111, -1] Kimigayo was a song that the Japanese forced Koreans to sing to brainwash them. Sun Yang had also showed discomfort towards it and they don't let this play at the Olympics. It's so scary how the Japanese imperialism gets shown on the broadcast

Article: 'Abnormal Summit' Formal apology for use of Kimigayo as background music "The mistake of the staff".

The staff made a formal apology on their Facebook page on the 28th : "We sincerely apologize for the improper use of background music during the entrance of the Japanese representative on the 17th episode broadcasted on October 27th. This is the fault of the staff in which they carelessly did not make sure to check properly. We will become more cautious so that a similar event like this will not happen again in the future. We sincerely apologize to the viewers again for our improper use of song choice. We will become an 'Abnormal Summit' staff that works more harder."

1. [+4032, -73] How could they make a mistake like that...

2. [+3425, -61] What a shame for the cast. To say this was a mistake is a bit...

3. [+2594, -67] Ah. . . . . let's really not make mistakes like this

4. [+1958, -137] Wasn't it intended and not a mistake ㅋㅋIf done once it's a mistake, but if it's repeated then it's intended.. Gives me goosebumps how there are pro-Japanese people working here and there in hidden places

5. [+1847, -62] Ah .................

6. [+636, -12] Mistake? Look here, you don't pick out a random background song without knowing the title of it. It was obvious that you guys picked out the Kimigayo song. Thinking about letting this pass over by writing a few lines of saying it was a mistake when it was played out so openly? This isn't even funny.

sources: kpopkfans,(2),knetizone

Comments

[iskerplunk.livejournal.com]

hold up... isn't kimigayo japan's national anthem to this day??

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

As far as I know it is

[pseudo-shigure.livejournal.com]

ugh. i also heard rumor that aus-dan might actually got kicked out of the show or having unfair treatment from jtbc :|

btw, that incident w/aus-dan apparently happened when he was 15-16 (?) no wonder the whole thing screams immaturity for me.

[jennasha.livejournal.com]

what incident? isn't he being kicked out because of a wrong visa as well, might've been going on other stuff tho behind the scenes idek but i liked him ene

[froggster.livejournal.com]

everything is messy, but demanding an immediate cancellation?? damn, that's a bit harsh imo.

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

not really, seeing as how misuda got canceled over someone saying guys under 180cm are losers (well that and a lot of shit along that line).

kimigayo is a song literally praising the king of japan and praying that he rules for thousand years to come - it's the critical symbol of japanese imperialism in the 20th century and koreans (and many other asians whose countries were annexed at the time) were forced to sing it while they were denied their rights to speak and write their own language and having a shit ton of their culture getting erased.

It's been less than a century this all happened and even people from okinawa refuse to sing it when it's played. this is seriously fucking horrible and i get so pissed every time this happens with the rising sun flag or kimikayo, because none of this shit would've flown today had usa paid half as much attention as it did with germany. like why is this not given the same amount of outrage as Hakenkreuz gets?

[nekokonneko.livejournal.com]

if you didn't know anything about japan's history imperialism then i could get the simplistic 'he's japanese so play the japanese national anthem as bgm' idea, but unless the people in charge of that decision were foreigners then they definitely would know (and even if they were foreign they should still know at least that much).

i think that whoever approved that should be fired because /come on/, but to cancel the whole show seems a bit much

[emzzallison.livejournal.com]

Really hoping this will just blow away. I love this show so much, I don't want it to get canceled. It seems too harsh to demand that. Especially since they are just introducing a japanese person by playing their national anthem in the background, but I don't know the full situation with this song and koreans... it obviously makes them upset...

[emzzallison.livejournal.com]

From what I'm reading in these comments, this is definitely not acceptable for a korean tv show. As an American i'm very ignorant to this song and everything it means, but it seems like this is something of a sore spot and widely known in Korea. So it's really shitty to put the song on korean tv show... the editors should know... I still know very little about this, so i'm sorry about my comment.

[turdferguson.livejournal.com]

isn't it a bit harsh to call for cancellation?

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

they pulled this shit in episode 1 too apparently and the fact that their apology doesn't even mention the song and just refers it as "inappropriate background music" really, really pisses me off and i hope this finally makes the public realize jtbc is no better than other media-backed channels like channel a and mbn.

god fuckign dammit.

edit: it doesn't fucking matter if it's the national anthem of a country, this was fucking equivalent of flashing swastika in the background of a german dude on a show full of jewish panels. the song has a painful connotation to koreans, and this is a korean show. this is the first time in the history of korean television kimigayo has ever played and i'm really, really not cool with just oh it's just a harmless song.

[modernelegance.livejournal.com]

That is what surprises me about this whole thing, as an American I don't understand all of the connotations to the song...so if it happened on one of our shows I can see the ignorance (oh it's the national anthem) excuse being accepted...but in South Korea where the connotations are WELL known and the tensions are still there between Japan/China/Korea it doesn't make sense that someone wouldn't catch using it would be offensive.

[hearttaek.livejournal.com]

I enjoy this show so much but im not optimistic about this blowing over.

[ryusa5.livejournal.com]

It's the official anthem on Japan,and it was played while he was introduced just like the others had their country's anthems played.
The staff shouldn'tshouldn't apologised for this because it was no mistake,you either play the national anthem or you don't,it's not like you can choose other song

[lastbestwest.livejournal.com]

I like this show a lot, but they need to seriously make some changes.

First, Julian needs to STFU and let other people talk. Enes too, I haven't watched a couple of the recent episodes but he he hasn't seemed as obnoxious lately. The editors need to make it more even instead of these two hogging all of the screen time.

I also think they should get some more diversity in there. There is what like, 5 or 6 Europeans? How come there are no Southeast Asians? There are a TONNE of Southeast Asians in Korea, so really there is not excuse for that.

[lovely4evr.livejournal.com]

i love this show but i side eye the editors a lot since zhang yuan actually said in episode one he didn't say he hated japanese people but the government and was angry because of that editing.
and to your second point ia ia

[imienazwisko.livejournal.com]

it amazes me how the nazi symbols managed to become forbidden and are a huge no-no while stuff like the rising sun flag or hammer and sickle symbol aren't

bye abnormal summit. it was a matter of time before jtbc fucked this show over

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

yup honestly i thought when this show ends it's gonna be something like the koreans being racist at something, not the other way around.

[lovely4evr.livejournal.com]

the apology is so half-hearted and to do it on social media also :///

[modernelegance.livejournal.com]

UGGGGGGGHHHHH at this whole thing. I enjoy watching this show, but this is just ridiculous.

[laeryn.livejournal.com]

I'm not even going to pretend I understand the feeling cause I long realized as a Spanish person I am never going to understand these things, but man, this is messy as fuck, I do not need to put myself in their shoes to see how big of a deal it is for them. That was one dumb mistake jfc.

That said, I don't agree with screwing everyone else over a small group of people's mistakes.

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

Half ass apology

[milafanway.livejournal.com]

The staff is so dumb that I can't even say something.........
All this time I was afraid Takuya will do a mistake and no.........it's the staff screwing the show.....if they cancel it I'll be forever bitter but that apology lol do they even TRY?????????????

[juhli.livejournal.com]

Wow, well that was a short-lived taste of success for JTBC.
I feel sorry for the cast and staff members who had nothing to do with this music choice. JTBC has to do something quick - and by something I don't mean that apology on facebook - to turn this situation around, otherwise I do see the show being cancelled over this.

Yeeks, maybe Gerniel shouldn't have left his job so fast after all.

[kazu-kumaguro.livejournal.com]

wait, Gerniel left his job?

[neoreulwonhae.livejournal.com]

They could have played some other Japanese song, right? Like just a nice neutral song with a koto and shit. To me it seems like Japan just needs to scrap Kimigayo and make a whole new anthem, since there seems to be controversy and opposition towards it even among Japanese people.

I really don't think the show needs to be cancelled though. Maybe fire the person who chose the song, if they indeed chose it on purpose, but I don't think it's fair to put everyone else out of a job because of one person's dumb decision (although I suppose there's more than one editor and someone else should've noticed, etc, but you know what I mean).

[madielou.livejournal.com]

I know absolutely nothing about the song's history except what was written in the comments, but I get that it is a very big deal.

But I'm wondering if a big controversy like this actually will have the show cancelled? Or is that just speculation? I don't really know how much impact it had on the show, so I'm curious. Like I never though a show would be completely tossed, maybe a ratings decline, but that's it.
Sorry for my ignorance.

[kairoso.livejournal.com]

wait... Is this a Korean show? Why would Korean producers play this song at all?? confused

[yasmine2009.livejournal.com]

I don't even watch this show, but I'm sad it will most likely be canceled. Why? The people that had nothing to do with this ignorance are going to lose their incomes, but the ones at fault will most likely get to keep their jobs.

This situation sucks...

[confuqued.livejournal.com]

I don't want them to cancel simply because I love the objective of the show. However, I can totally understand where the K-netz are coming from. They effed up using the song twice, and then they effed up even more with that wack ass apology.

[seroquels.livejournal.com]

This doesn't seem like a mistake...it happened twice and its not like the issues caused by Japanese imperialism have been fixed or forgotten. Sorry for the cast but cancel it.

[torontok.livejournal.com]

This is fucked up and someone in the editing room needs to be sacked

[aoki-hibi.livejournal.com]

I heard their sponsors are pulling out now...
I have a bad feeling that this show is going to be cancelled. I'm so sad! :( this show always made Mondays less Monday-like. But the show did make a huge mistake. They should've never played Kimigayo. I understand they play the country's anthem when they introduce a member but come on... They should've known better. Instead of playing Kimigayo they could've played a popular Japanese song. I hope the G11 members don't get negative responses in the future because this isn't their fault. The fault is in the hands of the staff. They were hugely irresponsible and thoughtless. This show had so much potential, so sad it's ending like this.