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Japan’s WEGO fashion brand is latest firm to feel force of Chinese consumer backlash
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Alyssa ChenPublished: 6:55pm, 13 Sep 2026
Japanese fashion brand WEGO has scrapped a plan to launch a new range in collaboration with the hit anime and manga franchise My Hero Academia after it triggered an angry backlash from Chinese consumers.
The Tokyo-based company triggered an outcry on Chinese social media after announcing it would release an exclusive range of My Hero Academia-themed clothing.
The franchise was widely condemned in China over a 2020 controversy about a character that conducted lethal human experiments – a topic which evoked memories of the notorious wartime Unit 731, responsible for the deaths of thousands of mainly Chinese prisoners.
The character’s name, Maruta Shiga, added fuel to the fire, because maruta (or log) was a derisive name given to the subjects of the unit’s human experiments. Some social media users also suggested that the surname Shiga was a reference to the scientist Kiyoshi Shiga, who has a bacterium named after him.
The proposed launch date for the line – 18 September, the 95th anniversary of the 1931 Mukden Incident, which served as the pretext for Japan’s invasion of China – further inflamed tensions.
The furore underscores the persistent grass-roots acrimony over Japan’s imperial history that continues to sour relations between the two countries.
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