Sanrio, the Japanese company behind the global Hello Kitty brand, has apologised and cancelled its merchandise partnership with a controversial Japanese television drama following widespread backlash in China.
The decision concerns the popular spy thriller Vivant, which featured Hello Kitty alongside other iconic characters, including My Melody and Cinnamoroll, dressed in costumes from the show, reports BBC.
In a statement issued late on Wednesday, Sanrio announced the termination of the collaboration, saying the television programme “contained elements inconsistent with Sanrio’s core values”.
“Since its inception, Sanrio has consistently used its characters to convey values such as care and connection, and remains committed to its corporate philosophy of fostering harmony among all people,” the company said.
Sanrio added, “We take the feedback we have received regarding this incident very seriously. Moving forward, we will strengthen our review processes for all future collaborative projects”.
Controversial depictions draw criticism
Vivant follows a Japanese salaryman who becomes caught up in an international web of crime and espionage. Its first season aired in 2023 and was set in a fictional Central Asian country.
However, the second season, which premiered in July, sparked widespread outrage on Chinese social media and in state media over its depiction of Chinese agents torturing a Japanese spy by stabbing him in the abdomen and cutting his fingers.
Chinese state-run broadcasters, including CCTV, said the torture methods “highly overlap” with those historically used by Japanese troops against Chinese citizens, accusing the drama of distorting the truth.
On Wednesday, Masamine Ryuho, president of TBS, the television network behind Vivant, defended the series, saying it was entirely fictional and had no intention of “disparaging any particular country”.
Meanwhile, China’s state-run newspaper, the Global Times, published an editorial on Wednesday criticising Sanrio. It said the hugely popular Hello Kitty character “should not dance with Japan’s right wing”.
The editorial warned that Sanrio “stands to lose far more than short-term sales” by collaborating with “anti-China content”. It added that “the trust and emotional bond it has built up over a long time will also suffer”.
Broader diplomatic tensions
The dispute comes amid strained diplomatic relations between Beijing and Tokyo, which have fallen to their lowest level in years following controversial comments about Taiwan made by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last November.
Since then, Beijing has exerted diplomatic and economic pressure on Tokyo through various measures, including restricting rare earth exports, curbing outbound tourism and reclaiming its pandas.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Takaichi told parliament that she had recorded episodes of Vivant and planned to watch them during the year-end holidays.
Hello Kitty is not the only international figure to face a backlash in China recently. Earlier this week, several Chinese commercial brands dropped French footballer Kylian Mbappé over comments he made about the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Mbappé has since apologised.
