Artist News

Japanese boy band apologise for Nazi-esque costumes

By | Published on Thursday 3 March 2011

Kishidan

The management of a Japanese boy band called Kishidan has apologised after the group appeared on a national TV show dressed in army uniforms that looked rather too much like those worn by the officers of Nazi Germany.

The pop outfit, who are best known for donning school uniforms, wore the costumes, complete with iron crosses and red armbands, on an MTV show in Japan. The appearance motivated a letter of complaint from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organisation based in LA. The Center said it was shocked and dismayed by the broadcast.

Kishidan’s management, Sony Music Artists, immediately issued a statement stressing that there was no symbolic message intended by wearing the costumes (except, perhaps, that the group’s members were getting rather too old for school clothes), while also apologising for any offence caused.

In a statement on the band’s website the group’s reps added that the costumes would never be worn again – in fact they will be destroyed – and that footage of the MTV interview will not be rebroadcast or distributed.



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