Bieber’s Blessing

Yasukuni is dedicated to people who died in wars fighting for Japan, and is seen by China, South Korea and other countries as being representative of the country’s militaristic push prior to its defeat in World War II.

Several Class A war criminals are honored there along with millions of other soldiers. It was obvious that Bieber was unaware of this aspect of the religious facility.

He apologized after outraged fans from China and South Korea started tweeting furiously that they would never listen to his music again.

“I was misled to think the shrines were only a place of prayer. To anyone I have offended I am extremely sorry. I love you China and I love you Japan.”

Of course, he missed Korea in that apology, but it was obvious the message was written in haste. At the time, Bieber was reportedly in Japan with his mother on a private sightseeing tour.

Elsewhere he explained that when he had played Budokan several years ago he had noticed Yasukuni, which is nearby, and wanted to visit. His statement gives the impression that maybe his Japanese hosts hadn’t been totally up-front with him about the meaning of the shrine, but, then again, most Japanese people think Yasukuni is only controversial to foreigners.

In any case, it was only the foreign press that made a big deal out of it, so much so that they practically ignored the fact that the day before Bieber’s pilgrimage more than 100 lawmakers from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party prayed at the shrine, an event that usually monopolizes headlines.

The domestic media mostly ignored Bieber’s faux pas, and it’s assumed that many of the 660,000 “likes” on the Instagram page in question (the photos have since been removed) were from Japanese fans.

In fact, the stunt seems to have won him some new ones. One person tweeted that he’d never heard of Bieber before but after his visit to Yasukuni, he would listen to his music.

Coincidentally, another Canadian pop star, Avril Lavigne, landed in hot water because of a very different Japan-related stunt. The video for Lavigne’s new single, “Hello Kitty,” shows the singer in a Japanese setting singing some lines in Japanese in front of a chorus line of robotic Japanese girls.

The title is certainly a reference to the cute Sanrio character, and during the video Lavigne is seen dining at a sushi bar and strolling the streets of Harajuku, the Tokyo teen mecca. Some foreign critics labeled the video “racist,” saying that Lavigne was exploiting Japanese culture in a crude and disrespectful manner.

Lavigne laughed off the criticism, tweeting, “RACIST??? LOLOLOL!!! I love Japanese culture and I spend half of my time in Japan. I flew to Tokyo to shoot this video specifically for my Japanese fans, WITH my Japanese label, Japanese choreographers AND and Japanese director IN Japan.”

Regardless of the awkwardness of Lavigne’s appropriation of Japanese style and ideas, the video has been warmly received in Japan. Even the Japanese embassy in Washington waded into the controversy, saying that the promo video is not racist in Japan’s view.

A spokesman for the embassy told TMZ.com that Lavigne “had only good intentions when making the video” and that they hope “discussions surrounding her song and music video results in more people discovering the beautiful and rich culture of Japan.”

Meanwhile, music snobs in the U.S. are trying to figure out if the video, co-written by Lavigne’s husband and Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, is some kind of joke.