It has been reported that the sale of cosplay and goods related to the famous Japanese animation ‘Detective Conan’ has been banned at Comic Con (comics content fair) held throughout China.
According to Chinese state-run English media outlet Global Times on the 9th local time, various Comic Con organizers in China have recently begun to introduce various bans on ‘Detective Conan’ and ‘My Hero Academia’.
‘Detective Conan’ recently celebrated its 30th anniversary and received strong criticism from Chinese netizens for its collaboration with ‘My Hero Academia’, which was controversial in 2020 for featuring a villainous doctor who performed human experiments under the name ‘Shiga Maruta’.
Maruta, meaning ‘log’, is the name given to biological experiment subjects by Unit 731, a research and development unit for various infectious diseases of the former Japanese military stationed in China. There was also suspicion that the name ‘Shiga’ was taken from the name of Kiyoshi Shiga, a Japanese bacteriologist.
The organizers of ‘iJoy Comic Con’ in Beijing, China, told the Global Times that they decided to completely ban cosplay related to the two works, as well as the exhibition and sale of goods.
The organizers of the ‘SSCA Animation & Game Expo’ in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, northeastern China, asked people to refrain from entering the event wearing cosplay related to Detective Conan as well as other controversial animation works.
The organizers of the ‘ACC Animation Expo’ in Xi’an, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, also announced on Weibo that they are aware that works such as ‘Detective Conan’ are raising serious social concerns due to content that runs counter to historical facts.
ACC Animation Expo emphasized that all exhibition content will be strictly reviewed and that measures such as cancellation of participation will be taken if any violations of the regulations are confirmed.
This measure is limited to some Japanese animation works and is a restriction issued by the Chinese private sector, but it is expected to have a growing impact in conjunction with the Chinese government’s countermeasures following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks suggesting ‘intervention in Taiwan in case of emergency’.
The official WeChat account of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Newspaper Dissemination Center said in a post the previous day that recent events remind us that Japanese militarism has not disappeared from the fields of culture and sports.
Yonhap News TV article inquiries and reports: KakaoTalk/Line jebo23
Jiyoon Lee (easyun@yna.co.kr)
The moments you capture are news!
ⓒYonhap News TV, unauthorized reproduction and redistribution, AI learning and use prohibited
date: 2026-02-09 14:57:00