A Pokémon card game event at a shrine honouring Japan's war dead has been cancelled following a backlash in China.
The Pokémon Company apologised for advertising the event, organised by a certified third party, through its official website, and stated it should not have been held in the first place.
The event was due to be held on Saturday at the Yasukuni Shrine, near the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, which commemorates those who died in several wars, including convicted war criminals.
The blunder comes at a moment of worsening relations between China and Japan over the stance of the latter's new prime minister on Taiwan.
The Yasukuni Shrine honours Japanese soldiers who died in a number of wars, including both Sino-Japanese wars and the Pacific theatre of World War Two.
However, the enshrinement of the names of more than 1,000 convicted war criminals among the roughly 2.5 million people it honours has long made it a controversial site for nations that were subjected to harsh treatment under Japanese occupation.
Brands that disregard history and hurt the feelings of the Chinese people will ultimately be abandoned, the People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's official news site, commented when the event came to light earlier this week.
The relevant enterprises must accordingly take social responsibility and not make light of the heavy weight of history in the name of entertainment.
Meanwhile, the state-run Global Times praised China's young netizens for criticising the event, adding: Any entertainment or leisure activities held at such a site constitute an open affront to historical truth, and staging events aimed at children there is even more egregious.
The Pokémon Company stated that the event had been mistakenly posted on its official card game website due to a lack of due diligence.
After the incident was discovered, the event was promptly cancelled, with the company sincerely apologising for the various reactions and opinions that have been generated as a result of this publication.
They assured that they would thoroughly review and strengthen their approval process to prevent a similar incident from occurring again.
This incident arises amid tensions due to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's comments suggesting a military response to potential aggression from China regarding Taiwan, a self-governing island claimed by Beijing.
The Pokémon franchise, which began as a video game in 1996, has evolved into an internationally recognized media empire spanning films, television series, and trading card games.
