BTS' Performance on Japanese TV Canceled Due to Shirt Controversy

[meriumi.livejournal.com]

BTS' performance on "Music Station" on Asahi TV slated for November 9th was canceled due to the recent outrage caused by a t-shirt worn by Jimin in August of last year. The shirt by the brand OURHISTORY combines a picture of the atomic bomb dropped over Nagasaki with the text "Patriotism Ourhistory Liberation Korea" repeated several times over.

The Asahi TV network states the following on their website:
"We have seen news that a t-shirt worn by one of the members has set off a furor and after asking their record company about this, we made the decision to postpone their appearance on our Nov 9 show."

The controversy has as of yet not impacted the Japanese leg of BTS' Love Yourself world tour, set to kick off in Tokyo next week.

Sources: Reuters, We Are Resonate (photo)

This news caught my eye by appearing in the local newspaper.

Comments

[katheli.livejournal.com]

this is blowing up all over the place, and I know BTS is gonna get shit anyways for being in the crossfire of Korean and Japanese rightwingers and GP, but I still wish they'd address the shirt and at least apologise for the insensitive use of the atomic bomb image.

though gotta say the extremists on both sides make me wanna be team nobody. Knetz are rejoicing and calling them patriotic for wearing that shirt (ew), Japanese are calling them anti-Japanese haters cause of the shirt and "past issues" such as that one tweet where RM said not to forget your past (I mean...) and Taehyung expressing support for comfort women (I MEAN...)

[lulufairybubble.livejournal.com]

The way some big ARMY accounts tell it on Twitter, nobody is really mad about the shirt. Which I know is bullshit but so many ARMYs dont know they are being lied to. That shirt was not a good look and most def did not help this political situation.

[chikage-chan.livejournal.com]

So this came back to bite them in their a**es. Considering their history of sweeping scandals under the rug, I'm not expecting an apology, and the whole thing surrounding this issue has definitely turned me off from them a little bit. I hope they prove me wrong and do something about this.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

mte

[bubble-monkey9.livejournal.com]

I feel bad for the other kpop groups who are going to have opportunities taken away from them all because Jimin can't identify a bomb on his shirt. Like can you imagine how Twice feels right now.. all the goodwill they've accumulated and now they might not be invited to Kohaku because of another group's fuck up.

[pepsi-twist9.livejournal.com]

If anything fans will pretend there's no bad blood and then wonder about why they aren't promoting. I see it happen all the time with Exo, it's like they conveniently forgot about how China really doesn't want other countries promoting there

[nekokonneko.livejournal.com]

The shirt makes for convenient excuse. There are far deeper things (https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2018-11-08/moon-faces-hard-choice-on-wwii-case-anger-korea-voters-or-japan?__twitter_impression=true) going on between South Korea and Japan at the moment.

[mearii87.livejournal.com]

also, he's not the first idol to wear it? no one seems to care about jooheon wearing a similar one during weekly idol (https://goo.gl/images/Twby6A) so.... :| yeah. this fervor is being fed by who's wearing the shirt and what's going on between the two countries rn

[dbsked.livejournal.com]

wearing this t-shirt was ignorant and insensitive, and I hope he reflects on this, and at least apologizes to his japanese fans.

but cancelling a tv performance over this seems petty to me.

[kimbafierce.livejournal.com]

Nothing's petty about that. He f up, angered people and started a fire, so naturally the station will cancel his appearance so the don't get burned by the flame.

[pikapika217.livejournal.com]

Jimin you were DUMB AS HALE for this and there's nothing to defend/deflect away from.

[normanikordei.livejournal.com]

This is all Bighit and Jimin’s fault. There’s no mincing words about it. Their M-O is to ignore things and hope that they’ll blow over or armys will bury it — which they definitely tried to do. Armys would mass report and block accounts on Twitter that mentioned it so they would get suspended, and r/bangtan has been deleting posts about it from the beginning. Only now are they allowing some approved discourse.

If Bighit had just issued a written apology when this first started circulating they could have cut it off there in the Japanese right-wing circles. But they didn’t. It was already steadily growing in J-media, mentioned on one of the morning shows etc, but now with the Korean Supreme Court ruling ofc it’s blowing up big time.

Who knows why music station really cancelled the performance, maybe the ruling was the catalyst and the shirt is scapegoat. But honestly in my opinion, this is a long time coming from the cancellation of the song produced by the AKB guy and the shirt compounded with the court ruling. So now they’re in an impossible position. Apologize to the Japanese public to regain the momentum they were gaining there with the gp, but risk angering their core base in SK.

I found it hilarious this morning reading the replies under the tweet from the AP. Army’s telling the ASSOCIATED PRESS to do more research and linking twitter threads. All of these articles are only reporting what Music station said in their official statement — that the shirt was what caused them to cancel the performance.

[chikage-chan.livejournal.com]

“But honestly in my opinion, this is a long time coming from the cancellation of the song produced by the AKB guy and the shirt compounded with the court ruling. So now they’re in an impossible position. Apologize to the Japanese public to regain the momentum they were gaining there with the gp, but risk angering their core base in SK.“

Totally this, their usual “ignore it until it goes away” technique blew up on their faces here. It just snowballed and drove them into a corner. It remains to see which side they will prioritize (I’m betting on Korea, even though I think it’s a stupid decision career-wise)

[garnetstar38.livejournal.com]

Anybody who thinks they understand the sociopolitical stuff that is going on here is ridiculous. I would never think I understand the nuances of what is happening in that region. Was it right to wear a shirt with an atomic bomb on it & tie it to the liberation of the Korean Peninsula? Most definitely not. I’m also American & the country I’m from still teaches most students that the only way we won WW2 was the dropping of that bomb & killing of innocent civilians. So it would be great if people tired to do some critical thinking here and see that he can be wrong & criticized for wearing that shirt but also see he is being used as a scapegoat for the larger political tensions that are going on in that region.

Anyone who thinks he will be made to apologize is delusional. Korea will crucify him if he is seen to bend his head to the Japanese.

People using this to perpetuate fan wars?

[lulufairybubble.livejournal.com]

We know this all didnt start bc of the shirt. The shirt plays a part in this now tho. And most people who are saying Jimin is a scapegoat are saying that as a way to say he did nothing wrong. He is a scapegoat in a way but not blameless.

[ironmangina.livejournal.com]

International news outlets are starting to pick up on this so I wonder if this will actually slow down their international momentum if it gains more traction without some sort of statement from Big Hit. Knetz have deluded themselves into thinking that people will undoubtedly sympathize with them because of all the fucked up shit Japan did to them (which, don't get me wrong, they need to own up to) but I don't see it going down that way.

BH/Jimin are definitely stuck in between a rock and a hard place. An apology will no doubt get them tons of hate in Korea, but they're also profiting off Japanese fans and therefore owe them at least respect.

[normanikordei.livejournal.com]

I think at an international level people are probably more aware of the atrocity of the atomic bombs and the mass loss of life and residual effects than they are about Japanese imperial rule. The mushroom cloud is a really powerful image that sticks with you. I had to educate myself about the horrible crimes the Japanese committed independently, it wasn’t something I learned in school. So if this gets more media attn from intl outlets I think people will just see jimin wearing a shirt with the atomic bomb on it and judge it from surface level rather than digging in deeper like knetz think they will.

[evilcoc0nut.livejournal.com]

[cosmicdaze.livejournal.com]

they’re rly caught in between a rock and a hard place rn...i feel like w the recent rising tensions between sk and jpn that this situation is getting too complicated to be able to hazard a guess as to how things will turn out

[onlylexy.livejournal.com]

Honestly, they have never addressed anti-blackness in the fandom or other forms of racism before so what makes anybody think they will start now? I like bts and all but let's be real, all of this love yourself and 'idc if you're black, purple or a space alien' talk is all for show. They are telling you to love yourselves because they aint gone do it for you lol. I really wished that they would actually address this issue's -but it's just another day in kpop.

[normanikordei.livejournal.com]

They are telling you to love yourselves because they aint gone do it for you lol.

I honestly laughed out loud

[ggumd.livejournal.com]

As usual I see quite a number of fans pulling the "he didnt know the picture was an atomic bomb!11!"/"his stylist made him wear it!11!" to remove accountability from jimin which goes directly against the false narrative armies have painted of BTS being woke/cultured kings rme like pick a damn narrative and stick with it.

I understand the sentiment koreans have of japan but there is a way to show support without praising a bombing that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.

[existingisfunny.livejournal.com]

watching fans of a group for 2 years try to understand a hundred something long history between 2 countries they don't even know the basics abt to protect said group is a fucking headache

[pukingflowers.livejournal.com]

This is frankly disgusting. 300,000 civilians lost their lives due to the bombing and he wears it on the fucking shirt? Did anyone apologize?? They could at least admit that they are ignorant and dumb as fuck.

[evilcoc0nut.livejournal.com]

[ostsiberia.livejournal.com]

Jimin is having a terrible week.

Part of me wants to sardonically laugh because this came up a week ago and ppl on r/kpop were calling out I-fans saying they were making it a bigger deal than K or J fans.

[benihime99.livejournal.com]

That shirt should't have been made to begin with

[infj23.livejournal.com]

Because Twitter translators are generally being silent on the issue, it's so hard to gauge how much this issue has blown up among J-ARMY, GP, and right wingers. While I do think the t-shirt was something bubbling under the surface, the recent court decision appears to have propelled the momentum of an issue that likely would have gone away without a public acknowledgment or response.

Considering that it was JP right-wingers who used the t-shirt to push their agenda, BH probably didn't see much risk in not saying anything at the time + didn't want to get caught up in another political debate (there has been a lot of incidents over the past 2-3 months). It's really telling that the radio station cited BH's unwillingness to compromise (on what? we don't know) as the reason for the cancellation. With every decision, there's a risk. BH/Jimin have made a number of decisions over the past year that have snowballed to this point.

BH might think there is a chance this will eventually simmer down but time ain't on their side with the JP concert leg in a couple of weeks. Some variables are out of their hand (e.g., if SK president will support the ruling). I hope they have a calculated PR plan that's something other than wait it out because they're assuming a lot of risk in losing the messaging and direction that this situation is heading.

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

Yikes at this whole situation.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

woke kings

[parkjsun.livejournal.com]

#endviolence indeed

[sheisagentleman.livejournal.com]

i mean...ngl i’m not surprised it was jimin and to be honest i don’t even know how they could fix this situation since i’m not korean or japanese.

in my opinion, as an outsider, he should definitely say that it was a horrible thing to do. i think he should be honest and not try to play only one side. i’m sure there’s a way for him to speak about korea’s liberation and also apologize for the picture. but then again, what do i know?

at the end, while unfortunate for the members that might not share the same sentiment in being an insensitive asshole, we should all be glad he showed his thoughts. i much rather know that they’re assholes than to keep supporting said assholes while thinking they’re good people.

[angela-derp-otp.livejournal.com]

#teamnobody

But fuck the designer tbqh.

[revedesnuages.livejournal.com]

It was an insensitive shirt and if there was any sincerity to their end violence message, he should've apologize for it. There's a difference between abhorring the atrocities committed by the Japanese military and government vs. celebrating the loss of so many civilians' lives.

Considering their cultural status and their increasing involvement in political events, I don't think Bighit or Jimin will apologize. They uploaded a Jimin-focused Bangtan Bomb today, so I think that makes their stance pretty clear.

[evilcoc0nut.livejournal.com]

[rainstormraider.livejournal.com]

Well that policy of ignoring problematic stuff until it fades away really blew up in their face, huh?
Too late to apologize now because Koreans will eviscerate you and tbh no one will think its a genuine apology anyhow.
Just realize that you ain't some model UN and that you're just a few grown ass people on the world stage who need to watch what you say and do. Like you're idols, this is what your entire industry is trained to do, yet you continue to fuck up? And now you're fucking with your own money? YIKES.

Its funny that these idols are taught everything but how to apologize appropriately.