People take their photos with fans bearing photos of the members of South Korean boy band BTS outside Tokyo Dome where the band's concert will be held in Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday. / Reuters-Yonhap



By Park Jin-hai



BTS' popularity in Japan has remained unscathed, despite the sweeping bashing among Japanese media outlets surrounding a T-shirt BTS member Jimin wore in March 2017.



The incident prompted TV Asahi to cancel the group's live performance the day before they were scheduled to appear on a Friday night show on the channel.



It also caused some Japanese intellectuals to raise questions regarding possible political motivation behind the cancellation.



Tokyo Sports on Oct. 26 reported the controversy first, condemning BTS member Jimin for wearing a T-shirt bearing a photo of Koreans celebrating their liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945 in one corner and another showing the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, with the words "patriotism," "our history" and "liberation" printed on it, calling it "an anti-Japanese act."



Jimin was seen for two seconds wearing the shirt in the "Burn the Stage" YouTube documentary that follows the band's 300-day sold-out world tour journey. However, the controversy went viral online after Japan's ultra-nationalist and far-right extremist group Zaitokukai picked up the issue and staged an anti-Korean protest.





Controversial T-shirt design