@vibejapan1: Sanrio has ended its merchandise partnership with Vivant, the TBS spy drama starring Masato Sakai that became one of Japan's most-watched shows. The products were already on sale in Japan, Hello Kitty and My Melody plushies dressed up as characters from the show. China wanted them gone. The reason is a TV villain: Vivant's second season features a made-up spy group called Shinshi that critics say is coded as Chinese. In one episode, that fictional group tortures a captured Japanese agent, and China's state media decided the scene paints Chinese people as cruel. A fictional villain, in a fictional spy ring, in a Japanese drama, hurt China's feelings. Beijing's state-run Global Times then demanded to know why Hello Kitty, supposedly a symbol of friendship, would team up with a show like that. A day later, China's Foreign Ministry accused "forces in Japan" of using TV shows to slander China. Sanrio caved within a day, first in China and then for its own customers back in Japan. It's the same playbook Beijing just ran on a French soccer superstar and a Spanish league: manufacture outrage, threaten the market, wait for the apology. Hollywood has cast Japanese, Russian and Arab villains for decades, and none of those countries pressured a toy company over it. Only China treats a TV bad guy as a diplomatic incident.

VIBEJAPAN

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Region: JP

Saturday 31 October 2026 12:49:09 GMT