Has any Jrocker ever been "cancelled"?

[zeus]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Another entry for “things I don’t wanna read about on the forum” has been added to the following topic:

https://forum.jrockone.com/t/conversational-visual-kei-etiquette-also-known-as-the-guideline-for-topics-best-avoided-on-jro/7897

@zeus

To some VK artists, a Nazi uniform is edgy Shock Rock material. Skip past these bands if you do not care for the aesthetic, but debating the existence of this has been done to death and there’s nothing new to add.

So tired of circling the drain about DAE THINK NAZI IMAGERY IS BAD?!!? Of course we do, but bands do it because it makes people uncomfortable and sparks a conversation. Good or bad, it gets you talking about them and that’s their ultimate goal. The usual response is something along the lines of “Japan and Germany were allies during WW2 and thus the society has different feelings on it”, but the truth is that they have their own problematic imagery that gets ignored in lieu of fetishizing Nazi aesthetics.

If you don’t know, I’m talking about the Japanese imperialism aesthetic, which is just as offensive but no one takes the time to discuss.

In former Japanese occupied countries, the rising sun flag symbolizes Japanese imperial aggression and war crimes. The flags were carried by soldiers and were raised when enemy territories fell to Japanese forces.

It’s equivalent to the Confederate Flag in East and Southeast Asia, and this shit is everywhere, yet we only seem to talk about Nazis.

These are the quickest examples that jumps to mind of this imagery in visual kei:

R指定 - 裏音源盤。, 2009

R指定 - 國立少年, 2009

R指定 - 少女喪失, 2015

キズ (Kizu) - ピアスにフード, 2021

(this was edited out at a later date)

ベル (Belle) - 拡声決起ストライキ promo materials, 2021

Right there, the (mirrored) swastika and the rising sun flag are bosom buddies on the same item, and these are current events, not just something that happened ten years ago.

@Kumanosuke has said everything that needs to be said about this:

@Kumanosuke

A megaphone shaped light showing the imperial Japanese rising sun flag which is mainly, but not exclusively, used by Japanese fascists/Neo Nazis/right wing parties today next to a “sun symbol”/Manji.
Considering the whole political theme (strike, Haro’s uniform/soldier/whatever looking outfit, the name of the single, the megaphone,…), it’s obvious to make a connection between the “sun symbol” and the rising sun flag.
I assume they wanted to be edgy, but didn’t dare to use the “real” swastika (which is basically the mirrored sun symbol).

OF COURSE this caused an uproar (which was probably intended, but not like this lol)
They now posted a statement where they basically say they read the “opinions” and explained the design.
The rising sun flag stands for “wishing for happiness”, the manji (which they themselves call swastika too) is just a religious symbol and characters don’t hurt someone.
They only deleted the tweet because of the “confusion”, but still gonna sell the merchandise apparently (hello MERRY-senpai!)

They said they’re still gonna learn about…“various issues”??? not telling us what they’re even talking about […] VK band does something stupid/provoking, Non-Japanese fans tell them that they consider this, VK band posts statement explaining their “art” and telling they’re all wrong and continuing selling/using this stuff but only when Japanese can see it because they don’t care.

So there you go, it doesn’t exist in the same sense as in Western cultures, and this is one of those times where we have to stop applying a Western mindset to a global issue viewed from a Japanese perspective. Move on to something other than Nazi/imperialist imagery, unless you have a bombshell to add that no one’s discussed yet.