A Tokyo-based publisher has apologised to the Embassy of Ukraine in Japan, after its magazine cover compared Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to a cat fight.
The winter edition cover of the Tsuhan Seikatsu magazine, published by Cataloghouse, features a photo of a soldier aiming a gun at a cat, reported the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper on Wednesday.
The report did not state when the magazine was published.
A headline in Japanese on the cover reads: “Nations capable of war and those that are not – determination is needed no matter which you choose.”
The photo was further captioned: “The people of Ukraine, who have refused to cave in to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s invasion: Go, go, go. Defend, defend, defend. Kill, kill, kill. Be killed, be killed, be killed. Will this fight between humans devolve from ‘defend’ into ‘murder free-for-all’? Our fights come to an end when someone gets injured, at the most. Be like us. Cease fire.”
In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine.
Last Friday, the Embassy of Ukraine in Japan posted the photo of the magazine cover on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In the post, the embassy said in Japanese that it “strongly condemns” such calls and analogies, which contradict the stance of the Japanese people and the Japanese government”.
“Russia is an aggressor and should withdraw from Ukraine immediately,” said the embassy.
“A war of aggression against a sovereign nation is not a fight. Appeasing the invaders will not lead to an end to the war.”
Some X users commented in Japanese on the embassy’s post, criticising the magazine cover.
One user wrote: “I don’t understand why they gave permission to publish it.”
Another user wrote: “How can you compare a war of aggression to a cat fight?”, while a third wrote that when he saw the magazine, he thought “this is no good”.
Cataloghouse apologised over the magazine cover on its website on Monday.
The publisher said it had handed over a letter to the Embassy of Ukraine in Japan, addressed to Ukraine Ambassador Sergiy Korsunsky.
In it, it apologised for using the inappropriate word “fight” to describe the fight for the defence of the Ukrainian people’s homeland.
The publisher also said that it received many inquiries from readers who wanted to know if the words “kill” and “be killed” on the cover referred to “the people of Ukraine”.
The subject of “kill” and “be killed” was never the “people of Ukraine”, said Cataloghouse, adding that the cover was intended to “express the essence of war”.
“Regardless of which side has the logic, ‘kill’ has become a synonym for ‘be killed’, so the war that has broken out must be brought to an end as soon as possible... We apologise for any misunderstanding that was caused by poor expression,” Cataloghouse added.
In March, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv during a rare unannounced visit by a Japanese leader that underscored Tokyo’s emphatic support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion.
There are also Japanese men who have joined the Ukrainians in the battle against Russia, thus defying defy their government’s warnings and bucking a decades-long national principle of pacifism.
Japan’s military is constitutionally limited to defence and has not fought since World War II.
