Japanese boy-band Kishidan is under fire for unintentionally offending fans by wearing outfits that resembled Nazi uniforms during an interview that aired on MTV Japan.
The band’s management publically apologized for the gaffe saying: “Although it was not meant to carry any ideological meaning whatsoever, we deeply regret and apologize for the distress it (the costume) caused Simon Wiesenthal Center and all concerned.”
The management wrote the statement in both English and Japanese and published it on Kishidan’s website.
The six members of Kishidan often wear Japanese schoolboy uniforms, but went with a different look for the recent televised interview. The starch uniforms – complete with red armband and iron cross – reminded some of Nazi paraphernalia.
The bad look caught the attention of Jewish human rights group, The Simon Wiesenthal Center, who accused the boy-band of ignorance and callousness towards World War II.
“Generally my experience has been in speaking with young people they don’t necessarily know very much other than that Hitler was a strong leader or that aesthetically this is very striking and interesting,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Center.
“For a lot of young Japanese they don’t even understand. When these controversies come up their initial reaction is ‘what’s the controversy? What did we do wrong here? What did Nazi Germany do?’”
This is the second time in recent months that the Center has taken issue with Japan over its treatment of Nazi imagery. In December, the Center protested over a Japanese discount chain that was selling Nazi uniforms as ironic party costumes.
In the meantime, MTV Japan has taken down the footage of the interview and issued an apology saying: “We never intended to offend anyone and have taken the footage and related images off the air and off of our website.”
