AKB48 member and Produce 48 contestant Chiyori Nakanishi facing backlash for kimchi comment

[icysnowdrop.livejournal.com]

Chiyori Nakanishi is a member of the Japanese girl group AKB48 and is currently a participant in the reality show Produce 48. Some South Korean netizens dug up a joke she made in 2014 on episode 49 of the reality show HKT no Odekake ("HKT Goes Out"). While the girls from HKT48 are visiting South Korea, Nakanishi (who was a member at the time of filming before being transferred to AKB48) comments jokingly, "It smells like kimchi!" right after leaving the airport. Natsumi Matsuoka (another Produce 48 contestant) playfully slaps her, saying, "That's not true!", and Chihiro Anai adds, "It doesn't!"

Even though Nakanishi meant it as a joke, "kimchi" is a common racial slur used against Koreans and many people are understandably upset by it. Nakanishi, nor her management, have not yet addressed a statement surrounding this incident.

Nakanishi came in at #39 last week in Produce 48, but there's a possibility that this controversy will affect her in the coming weeks and basically Milkshake Duck her.

Source: The Korea Times, video footage (at 9:45)

Comments

[miyozari.livejournal.com]

That's nagl. She seems like the kind of type who likes to make people laugh, but this time she should've kept it to herself.

[torontok.livejournal.com]

Yikes. Bye bye I guess, she's not getting voted into the next round with this.

Idk why some kpop fans on other sites have gone full weaboo and keep trying to downplay the fact that the Japanese do have quite xenophobic sentiments against Koreans and that it's not out of left field for the AKB48 girls to hold similar beliefs. Tano Yuka literally made a bunch of racist comments against Koreans on a livestream and AKB48 did zilch

[miyozari.livejournal.com]

Weeaboos (and many AKB48 fans) can be very racist and/or xenophobic as well. When a lot of Korean groups used to actively promote in Japan (around 2009-2012), they made very nasty comments. Jpop-centric sites back then (e.g. arama) where a minefield. It's one of the reasons I quit using those sites.

[lilykt7.livejournal.com]

Omg I just read her comments and then her weak ass apology. Girl byeeeeeee. Please let the door hit you on the way out

[bubble-monkey9.livejournal.com]

she's low ranked anyways so she won't be on the show much longer. I'm side-eyeing the weebs who are brushing this aside tho like they don't know kimchi (and "chung face") are used derogatorily by japanese netizens all the time to insult koreans.

I think koreans also found an old tweet from miyu about how she wanted to visit the yasukuni shrine so .. nagl.

[nana-the-dwarf.livejournal.com]

I think koreans also found an old tweet from miyu about how she wanted to visit the yasukuni shrine so .. nagl.

Would you mind explaining why this is nagl?

[bubble-monkey9.livejournal.com]

it's a shrine dedicated to the those who died in the war.. including war criminals. The Koreans and Chinese have brought up countless times how uncomfortable they are with that shrine existing.

[senshicalico.livejournal.com]

what the poster above me said. It's not just the existence, either, but a politician or a celeb going to visit (or, worse, pray) at Yasukuni is basically a huge offense because you're basically visiting / praying to the war criminals who had a part in the atrocities in China, Korea, and beyond.

[premonitioner.livejournal.com]

not surprising, just disappointing. why don't people on TV learn that it's lazy humour to make offensive jokes like this

[kyulkyung.livejournal.com]

smh i liked her. not too surprising though since i feel like the moodmakers/clowns always end up being the messiest.

knetz have been coming for a lot of the pd48 girls lately (korean trainees included) and not always do their complaints seem warranted, so that's been a bit exhausting..