*UPDATE* SWC: MTV Japan should apologize for airing interview with rock group dressed in Nazi garb; urges Kishidan to drop SS-like uniforms

February 28, 2011

**UPDATE**


Read related Wall Street Journal article...

Group at MTV apologizes for Nazi garb

MTV Japan aplogizes for airing interview with rock group dressed in Nazi garb after Simon Wiesenthal Center protest.

‘‘We have taken the words of advice from Simon Wiesenthal Center very seriously ... will never again use this costume and it will be disposed of immediately. We deeply regret and apologize for the distress it has caused ...’’

February 28, 2011

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights NGO has expressed its shock and dismay over the appearance of  the Japanese rock group 'Kishidan' on a recent MTV-J program, "Megavector."

Members of the band were wearing SS-like uniforms during an interview on the February 23rd prime time broadcast. “There is no excuse for such an outrage,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. In protests to MTV-J, SONY Music Artists, and the Avex Group, Cooper wrote in part, “As someone who has visited Japan over 30 times, I am fully aware that many young Japanese are woefully uneducated about the crimes against humanity committed during World War II by Imperial Japan in occupied-Asia, let alone about Nazi Germany’s genocidal “Final Solution” against the Jews in Europe. But global entities like MTV and Sony Music should know better.”

“Such garb like the uniform worn by Kishidan is never tolerated in the mainstream of any civilized country outside of Japan. In spite of all the efforts made by democracies to combat bigotry, racism and hate crimes, there are young people who are attracted to a racist ideology and the symbols of Nazism like those that inspired the uniforms worn by 'Kishidan.'  It is wrong for anyone, including people in Japan to dismiss such marketing as mere “faux-rebellion,” Rabbi Cooper explained.

The Wiesenthal Center is also urging that the group drop its Nazi attire and apologize to its fans and to the victims of Nazism. In addition, “the Simon Wiesenthal Center is prepared to bring an aging survivor of the Nazi Holocaust to Japan so that MTV Japan can interview someone who spent their teen years suffering starvation, depravation and torture and seeing their families being murdered for the “crime” of being born Jewish,” Cooper concluded.

For further information contact the Center's Public Relations Department 310.553.9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).