Japanese pop culture is in hot water in China over WWII history. Uniqlo China has removed a number of Pokémon-themed goods from its website after an online uproar over a trading card event scheduled to be held at the Yasukuni shrine.
In a related development, the long-running manga and anime series Detective Conan has been catching heat over a scheduled My Hero Academia collab, a series with a tarnished reputation regarding Japan-China relations. These are far from the first such controversies between the countries over WWII history, but the details of this latest round highlight the rising political tensions between the two countries.
Pokémon at Yasukuni
In early February 2026, Uniqlo China was running a collaboration with the Pokémon Company featuring branded goods such as sneakers. It was an extension of Uniqlo’s larger collab with Pokémon in Japan and Asia.
With Uniqlo being one of Asia’s largest clothing retailers, and Pokémon being a similarly dominant pop-culture brand, such collaborative marketing is usually background noise in the Chinese consumer market. However, as of late February, all marketing materials for the event have been removed from Uniqlo’s Chinese website, and reports suggest the goods in question are out of stock.
The abrupt cancellation comes after weeks of online controversy over a Pokémon trading card game event held at Yasukuni Shrine. Yasukuni contains a WWII memorial dedicated to the Japanese Imperial Army soldiers. Among them are many high-ranking officials who committed atrocities in China during the Japanese Empire’s colonial incursion into the continent.
Unsurprisingly, this memorial to documented war criminals is a source of constant political tension between Japan and China. Usually, such incidents involve a politician or celebrity visiting the shrine. Most recently, it involved a Chinese streamer who urinated on the shrine in a bid for social media attention.
This time, however, the controversy stems from private citizens. The Pokémon trading card event scheduled for January 31st at Yasukuni was a third-party event, unaffiliated with the Pokémon company. The only connection came from a listing on an event aggregator featured on the Pokémon trading card website.
Chinese netizens caught wind of the event, sparking outrage on Chinese social media. After public outcry, the Pokémon Company issued an official apology and forced the event organizers to cancel.
By then, however, the damage had been done. Uniqlo China hasn’t issued an official statement on why they abruptly cancelled their Pokémon brand collab, but no doubt Pokémon’s freshly tarnished reputation was the main factor.
Detective Conan called out for My Hero Academia collab
One month into 2026, Pokémon was actually the second anime embroiled in WWII historical controversy, and the first instance reveals more of the mechanisms working behind the scenes in these disputes.
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Early in 2026, the beloved children’s anime Detective Conan announced a brand collaboration with the hit superhero series My Hero Academia. The collab was scheduled for January 31st, the same day as the Pokémon Yasukuni event. However, before it could kick off, the event was beset by a torrent of criticism on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
The criticism doesn’t come from any content in Detective Conan. It comes from an old controversy about the name of a particular My Hero Academia character.
The series features a mad scientist who experiments on his captives, and in his initial appearance, he was named “Shiga Maruta,” a reference to the term “Maruta” that was used by Unit 731, the infamous human experimentation unit in the Japanese Imperial Army.
“Maruta” referred to the Chinese prisoners of war who were used as subjects for the unit’s horrific experimentation. The character’s name was changed after it drew heavy criticism for a lack of historical sensitivity.
On its own, this controversy is nothing too remarkable – an artist included an insensitive term in his work, and changed it after justified public outcry from a segment of his readers. What is notable is that, six years later, the resentment around this controversy has remained so strong that Detective Conan gets wrapped up in it just for loosely associating with My Hero Academia.
At least part of this longevity comes from the Chinese Government’s indirect involvement. As a part of the Conan controversy, the Global Times – the print outlet of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) – printed an article directly addressing the controversy.
The article, entitled “Conan: Think Beyond Profit and Consider Your Responsibility as a Cultural Icon,” stated that a certain segment of Japanese business “lacks judgment in handling historical events and has insufficient respect for the sensitive nature of Japan-China relations,” the implication being that Conan was transgressing just by being associated with another brand that had transgressed in the past.
Pop culture caught in political crossfire
The CCP’s role in these cultural controversies gives it a layer of nuance beyond the basic facts. A card game event scheduled for a controversial location is shut down; a manga character’s name is changed due to an insensitive reference. These are stories of legitimate criticism being voiced and responded to.
But the government’s public stance in support of maintaining grudges along these cultural lines expands the scope of controversy beyond the responsible parties to anyone who associates with them. The stigma remains even after the controversy has already been acknowledged and addressed.
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That is why we see Uniqlo cancelling a collaboration with Pokémon, even though a third-party group associated with Pokémon was the original transgressor. And Conan is being pressured about a collaboration with My Hero Academia due to a controversy from six years prior. Legitimate grievances are seized upon as leverage points for the government to flex its influence, assert its authority, maintain those grievances, and extend them further.
In the background of these accelerating cultural flashpoints is the rising tensions between Japan’s and China’s governments. The tensions escalated when Takaichi Sanae, Japan’s new hardline conservative prime minister, asserted that Japan would come to the defense of Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion, violating a long-standing diplomatic status quo.
Takaichi has also stated that she will “pursue rearmament.” The policy is a continuation of late Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s long quest to repeal Article 9, the article of Japan’s constitution declaring national disarmament.
If political relations between Japan and China continue to deteriorate, it seems more than likely we will see Japanese cultural products caught in the crosshairs of Chinese historical criticism. As usual, it is the citizens of these governments caught in the middle. Fans of a series who try to enjoy the works and share their passion are used as leverage in political negotiations over topics unrelated to the works in question. Discussions far above their heads intrude on their hobbies, creating barriers and cutting off cultural connections.
If things continue at this pace, the future of cultural and economic ties between Japan and China is up in the air.
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Sources
ポケモンコラボ商品の一部が中国で販売停止 靖国でのイベント影響か. Yahoo News
ポケモンやコナン、中国で「炎上」の実態 「歴史観」理由に販売停止. 朝日新聞
ヒロアカ「丸太」が「731部隊を想起させる」──批判受け、集英社が謝罪 「過去の歴史と重ね合わせる意図はない」. IT Media News
高市首相の台湾をめぐる発言、なぜ中国を怒らせたのか. BBC News Japan
