Overview
- Ayumi Hamasaki’s Saturday concert in Shanghai was called off after a request to cancel, with the organizer citing “force majeure.”
- Hamasaki said staff were convened in the morning and the stage built over five days by Japanese and Chinese crews would be dismantled.
- Bandai Namco canceled its three-day Shanghai anime festival after One Piece singer Maki Otsuki’s performance was cut when lights and sound went off.
- Otsuki’s agency cited “unavoidable circumstances,” and idol group Momoiro Clover Z said the organizer told them not to perform.
- News reports link the wave of cancellations to tensions following Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Taiwan-related remarks, while authorities have not offered detailed public explanations; unnamed sources say China requested Hamasaki’s cancellation.