BTS member Jungkook apologizes for “making Tokyo great again”

exist June 13Jungkook of BTS just recovered from mandatory military service and found himself at the center of international controversy Surface He wore a black hat for J-Hope during rehearsals.

His post-military reappearance should be a time of celebration. Instead, it became a PR headache with a geopolitical undertone. Because perched on Jungkook’s head, wearing the bright white letters on a black hat, there are four words that open the calm: making Tokyo great again.

This sentence is immediately considered an impromptu to “make America great again”, a campaign slogan for US President Donald Trump. MAGA: Four letters now related to nationalism, xenophobia and white complaint politics.

In Japan, the echoes are different, but still very annoying. Variations such as “Great to Tokyo Again” occasionally surface online in nationalist and imperialist circles, especially among those with anti-Kriare tendencies. Even the governor of Tokyo Koike Yuriko Once was Photograph In 2017, wearing a towel and wearing it in the same phrase during re-election, masking right-wing sentiment in an optimistic city brand.

This brings us back to Jungkook – a Korean idol, known by many as a symbol of national pride. There, he wore a hat, both tilted, with an ideology that many Koreans believed was full of historical tension and national trauma. The responses of Korean fans and netizens were quickly reduced.

Many people think this is not a political statement of knowledge. “Honestly, I think Jungkook wore it without knowing it,” wrote one fan. However, that didn’t spare him. Fans continued: “Even if he doesn’t know, that’s still wrong. There’s no excuse.” Others wonder why no one on his team (no designers, no managers, no interns with basic internet services) marked the phrase. One user dry ask“Didn’t a single staff member stop this?”

Jungkook responded quickly. In the early morning of June 14, in a post on the fan platform Weverse, he A clear apology. He admitted that he did not realize the historical or political implications of the sentence and took full responsibility, saying that the hat was immediately discarded.

Basics Japan, a brand behind the hat, also joined. In the Instagram story, they wrote:

“We sincerely apologize to anyone who feels uncomfortable.
That is, we believe in the freedom to express our thoughts through fashion.
This design is not intended to convey any political stance. It’s an iconic way to express our hopes for Tokyo fashion. ”

An explanation that is neutral enough – is hopeful, not history – but the damage has been caused. Of course, the hats sold out quickly. A Japanese Twitter user Fun They thought it was just a cheesy foreigner joke until they saw a high price.

Thinking of the whole thing as a smaller fashion lapse can easily be overfilled by the internet’s endless appetite for drama. In some ways, that’s the truth. A four-word slogan, a black hat, a moment of unawareness – hardly something of an international scandal.

But then again: a hat is more than just a hat. Symbols are not lazy. They have weight, especially as they cross the ocean and centuries. And, no matter what the designer calls the intent, this heavy background cannot be deleted or ignored.