Pokémon cancels event at controversial Japan shrine following backlash

A Pokémon card game event at a shrine honouring Japan's war dead has been cancelled following a backlash in China.

The Pokémon Company apologised for advertising the event, organised by a certified third party, through its official website, and said it "should not have been held in the first place".

The event was due to be held on Saturday at the Yasukuni Shrine, near the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, which commemorates those who died in several wars including convicted war criminals.

The blunder comes at a moment of worsening relations between China and Japan over the stance of the latter's new prime minister on Taiwan.

The Yasukuni Shrine honours Japanese soldiers who died in a number of wars, including both Sino-Japanese wars and the Pacific theatre of World War Two.

But the enshrinement of the names of more than 1,000 convicted war criminals among the roughly 2.5 million people it honours has long made it a controversial site for nations that were subject to harsh treatment under Japanese occupation.

"Brands that disregard history and hurt the feelings of the Chinese people will ultimately be abandoned," the People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's official news site, commented when the event came to light earlier this week.

"The relevant enterprises must accordingly take social responsibility and not make light of the heavy weight of history in the name of entertainment."

Meanwhile, the state-run Global Times praised "China's young net­izens" for criticising the event, adding: "Any enter­tain­ment or leis­ure activ­it­ies held at such a site con­sti­tute an open affront to his­tor­ical truth, and sta­ging events aimed at children there is even more egre­gious."

The Pokémon Company said in a statement on Friday that the event had been "mistakenly posted" on its official card game website "due to a lack of due diligence".

"After the incident was discovered, the event was promptly cancelled," it said. "We sincerely apologise for the various reactions and opinions that have been generated as a result of this publication."

The firm said it would "thoroughly review and strengthen" its approval process to prevent a similar incident from occurring again.

Beijing claims the self-governing island as part of its territory, and has not ruled out taking it by force.

The row saw the governments of both nations urge their citizens not to travel to the other, while the release of two popular Japanese films in China were also postponed.

Pokémon, which began as a video game in 1996, has since become an internationally renowned media franchise spanning films, TV series and trading card games.