Petition to remove K-pop group Aespa from Japanese year-end TV show exceeds 70,000 signatures
One of the group's members is Chinese and had previously faced backlash for posting a lamp shaped like an atomic bomb's mushroom cloud on social media in 2022.
Aespa arrives at the Billboard Women in Music Awards on March 29, 2025, in Inglewood, Calif. (Photo: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
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A petition in Japan calling for K-pop girl group Aespa to be removed from the Japanese New Year’s Eve television show has surpassed 70,000 signatures as of Thursday (Nov 20).
The petition on global petition platform Change.org came amid escalating tension between China and Japan after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi remarked that Japan could intervene if China attacked Taiwan. One of Aespa's members, Ningning, is Chinese.
The rest of the members are Karina and Winter, who are South Korean, and Giselle, who is Japanese.
Ningning previously faced backlash in May 2022 after she shared an image on Bubble, a paid messaging platform used by K-pop idols, of a lamp she had purchased that resembled an atomic bomb’s mushroom cloud. She wrote: "I bought a pretty lamp. What do you think?"
Comments on the petition included: “It is unacceptable to allow an idol who glorified atomic bomb lighting to appear on a Japanese program in the very country that suffered from it”; and “Letting a member who praised atom bomb lighting without remorse appear in a celebration enjoyed by all Japanese people once a year, at the end of the year, is utterly unforgivable”.
The annual Japanese show Kohaku Uta Gassen, otherwise known as Red And White Song Battle, is an iconic year-end programme that draws millions of viewers.
Japan’s national broadcaster NHK said it had checked with Aespa’s agency, SM Entertainment, and confirmed through Japanese media reports that Ningning did not intend to belittle atomic bomb victims. SM Entertainment has declined to issue further comment.
