SHANGHAI (Bernama-Kyodo): The annual Shanghai International Film Festival scheduled for June will not feature a programme on Japanese movies, organisers said Monday, amid the ongoing bilateral diplomatic row over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks on a Taiwan contingency, Kyodo News reported.
The Beijing International Film Festival, which was held in April, had similarly forgone an event showing Japanese movies.
An organiser expressed regret, saying the programme "would have been an opportunity to convey feelings of the two countries' people through movies" and hoped that it would resume next year.
The tensions between the two Asian neighbours stem from Takaichi's parliamentary remarks last November, suggesting Japan could deploy its defence forces in the event of a conflict over Taiwan, a self-ruled island claimed by Beijing.
The diplomatic feud has affected the Japanese entertainment industry, with the postponement or cancellation in China of movie screenings, concerts, and performances by artists as well as animation events.
The release of the latest movie in the "Crayon Shin-chan" anime series and the musical "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" has been called off.
The Japanese Film Week, first held in China in 2006, has continued despite Sino-Japanese tensions, including those that escalated in 2012 when Tokyo brought the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea under state control, as well as during the COVID-19 pandemic. China claims the uninhabited islands. -- BERNAMA-KYODO
