Features
Nazi Costumes Backlash
Kyakizaka46, another adolescent Japanese girl band micro-managed by super-impresario Yasushi Akimoto, has received a great deal of criticism for its latest range of specialty costumes, which look a lot like the uniforms that SS officers wore during the Nazi era.
from the group's website
The getups made their debut at the group’s Oct. 22 concert in Yokohama, and consist of black knee-length dresses designed to look like military overcoats, black capes and officers’ caps with eagle emblems. Following a huge public outcry from both within and without Japan, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Sony Music Entertainment Japan, the group’s record label, issued an apology.
“We express our heartfelt apology for causing offense … due to our lack of understanding,” said a message on the label’s website. “We take the incident seriously and will make efforts to prevent a recurrence of a similar incident in the future.”
A Sony spokesman stressed that there was no intention to link the group or its performance to Nazism. The Wiesenthal Center was particularly incensed.
Its associate dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, released a statement that read, “Watching young teens on the stage and in the audience dancing in Nazi-style uniforms causes great distress to the victims of the Nazi genocide.”
As some media noted, Sony has been in trouble with the Wiesenthal Center before. In 2011 it apologized for one of its signings, the Japanese rock band Kishidan, who also dressed in Nazi-like gear during an appearance on MTV Japan.
Akimoto has yet to respond to the outrage, which is significant because he is famous for making or, at least, giving final approval for all stylistic decisions for acts under his charge.
He has received his own measure of criticism from within Japan for exploiting the sexual appeal of underage girls, and has profited greatly from it. Keyakizaka46 debuted a year ago and its first single, “Silent Majority,” released last April, went to Number 1, selling 260,000 copies in the first week.