Hello Kitty Maker Sanrio Ends Ties With Japanese Spy Drama After Backlash From China

Sanrio, the Japanese company behind Hello Kitty, has apologised and pulled out of a commercial partnership with a Japanese television drama following criticism from Chinese state media and social media users, who accused the show of "deliberate smears" against China.

In a post on the Chinese platform Weibo, the company said it had decided to end its association with the series Vivant after concluding that the show "contained elements inconsistent with Sanrio's core values."

The second season of the spy thriller, produced by the Japanese broadcaster TBS, stars Masato Sakai as a salaryman who becomes entangled in a web of international crime and espionage. The first season was set in a fictional central Asian country and passed without controversy.

The backlash began this week, when Chinese state media attacked the way the new season shows Chinese agents. They objected to scenes in which the agents use "ruthless violence" to torture members of a secret unit of Japan's self-defence forces. In the episode broadcast on 4 October, a Chinese agent cuts off the fingers of a Japanese intelligence officer and stabs him in the abdomen.

Chinese media said some of the torture methods resembled those used by Japanese troops against Chinese civilians during the second world war. The state-run tabloid Global Times said the acts shown "bear striking similarities to the torture inflicted on Chinese nationals by invading Japanese troops," and argued that the drama "distorts the truth by attributing these atrocities to modern Chinese characters."

In its statement, Sanrio said it has always used its characters to convey values such as care and connection, and remains committed to a corporate philosophy of fostering harmony among all people. "We take the feedback we have received regarding this incident very seriously," the company said. "Moving forward, we will strengthen our review processes for all future collaborative projects."

The new season arrives amid increasingly strained relations between Beijing and Tokyo. In November last year, Japan's conservative prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, set off a diplomatic row by telling MPs that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could lead to the deployment of Japan's self-defence forces if the conflict posed an existential threat to Japan. Earlier this month, Takaichi said she had recorded episodes of Vivant and hoped to watch them over the year-end and new year holidays.

China is a vital overseas market for Sanrio, whose characters include My Melody and Cinnamoroll, both of which appeared on Vivant-themed merchandise. According to Chinese media, the Tokyo-based company earned 781m yuan ($117m) from the Chinese market in the first half of this year, an increase of more than 40% on the same period a year earlier.

The backlash against Sanrio follows a similar episode days earlier, when the French footballer Kylian Mbappé was dropped by several Chinese brands after jokingly calling Mao Zedong a "dictator." The Real Madrid forward, who is nicknamed the "dictator" for his influence on the game, later apologised for his "ill-judged" remarks.