Pokémon Event at Yasukuni Shrine Canceled Amid Controversy

Sun Feb 01 2026 09:48:04 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

The Pokémon Company has canceled a trading card game event scheduled to take place at Japan's Yasukuni Shrine following backlash from China and concerns over the venue's controversial history.

A Pokémon trading card game event planned at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo has been canceled due to intense backlash, particularly from China. The Pokémon Company publicly apologized, stating that the event should never have been scheduled at the site, which honors Japanese war dead, including convicted war criminals. The decision to cancel comes amidst heightened tensions between China and Japan over political issues, with calls for brands to be mindful of historical sensitivities.

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, commented the People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's official news site, when the event came to light earlier this week.

Meanwhile, the state-run Global Times praised China's young netizens for criticizing 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.

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

The incident comes after a row with China sparked by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's suggestion that Tokyo could respond with its own self-defense force if China attacked Taiwan.

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.