A Pokemon card event for Saturday at Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine was canceled and the Pokemon Company, an affiliate of Japanese game maker Nintendo, apologized following a backlash from China, as tensions between the two sides escalated. The shrine honors Japan’s war dead, including convicted war criminals. Victims of Japanese aggression, especially China and the Koreas, see visits to Yasukuni as showing a lack of remorse about Japan’s wartime past. Japan faces escalating tensions with China after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested a Japanese involvement if China takes military action against Taiwan, a self-governing island Beijing claims as its own.
