Korean and Chinese netizens demand apologies from the company for tweeting about the controversial shrine.
Yasukuni Shrine is one of Tokyo’s most beautiful shrines, but it has a controversial nature. Historically it was founded to honor those who died defending Japan in battle, but after World War II, that meant also honoring more than 1,000 war criminals who performed heinous crimes in China and Korea during Japanese imperialism.
As such, many Korean and Chinese nationals despise the shrine and what it represents, so much so that it has even been the object of bomb threats. Any celebrity or public representative who is caught visiting it is quickly criticized, and even internationally beloved stars like Justin Bieber are not immune. That’s why Creatures, Inc., the company known for producing Pokémon cards, toys, and even some video games, caused a huge stir when they publicly tweeted about their company-wide visit to Yasukuni.
▼ Creatures, Inc. is know to be behind a lot of the Pokémon toys on the market.
同僚から、ポケモンセンターヨコハマ・プレオープン内覧会の写真が届きました📷いいなぁ🤤 ポケモンセンターヨコハマは11月9日（金）10時30分～正式オープンです😊 #ポケセン https://t.co/qpwg2d7qeb
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株式会社クリーチャーズ (@Creatures_Inc) November 08, 2018
The tweet, which has now been deleted, was posted on January 7 and showed pictures of Creatures, Inc. employees at the shrine, with text that said, “Creatures is starting its first work of the year today (happy emoji) We visited Yasukuni (Torii gate emoji) Shrine ^_^ The managers and chiefs have their hearts set on writing their wishes on wooden boards (sunset over mountain emojis).”
Unfortunately, whoever manages the Twitter account for Creatures made a grave error in sharing this tweet. Creatures’ account was soon flooded with critical comments from Chinese and Korean netizens.
“@Creatures_inc, I think you need to apologize about your Yasukuni Shrine visit. It’s fine to make a shrine visit as a company, but why did you have to go and post it on Twitter and draw backlash from Chinese and Koreans? You’ve caused trouble for Nintendo, Game Freak, and Pokémon.”
“Creatures, I’m extremely disappointed that you are supporting Japan’s war crimes, which are similar to Germany’s, and glorifying ‘Yasukuni Shrine’.”
“What the hell was the point of going to the war crime shrine? I’m never going to buy anything Pokémon again.”
“Fxxx Yasukuni Shrine GO TO HELL”
“Pokemon has made a huge mistake! You are not in a position where you can just lightly go to Yasukuni shrine. You must write an apology letter immediately!!!!!!!”
“As a fan of Pokémon since childhood, I’m really disappointed about your recent tweet at Yasukuni Shrine. It seems like you’ve deleted the problematic tweet, but please take care to never let anything sad like this happen again.”
“I bet you just went there because it’s near your headquarters, and I would understand it if you were a small domestic company without international ties. But you know, you’re doing international business with a lot of people and partners who will feel uncomfortable, so you really shouldn’t do something like this. If this is what you want to do then you should retire from the international market.”
It’s true that Yasukuni Shrine is in the same area of Tokyo as Creatures, Inc.’s headquarters, so perhaps they just decided on a whim to make a company trip there. Nevertheless, it’s no secret that Yasukuni Shrine is a controversial place, so if that were the case, it might have been better to go elsewhere, or at the very least not post about it on their public Twitter account.
It’s just like when a Japanese high school accidentally used imperial war propaganda on a test; it was a poorly thought out idea, that ended up receiving an understandable amount of backlash.
Source: My Game News Flash
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