JYPE responds to Nichkhun’s controversial Thai CF

Some controversy has sparked up around a CF that 2PM‘s Nichkhun filmed for a Thai beverage company, the CF has received some negative remarks online.

The controversy in the advertisement is during a segment where Nichkhun appears to be dancing in front of a ‘Rising Sun’ Imperial Japanese war flag.

The ‘Rising Sun’ flag is the military war flag of Japan, and was “heavily used during the colonization of East Asia in the first-half of the 20th century, it is seen offensive to countries that were under control of Japan at that time, especially because of the war crimes that were committed.“ The ‘Rising Sun’ flag is one that is considered extremely taboo in both China & Korea.

As a Hallyu star representing Korea, the image of Nichkhun dancing in front of what looked like a Rising Sun flag came across as inappropriate and offensive to some viewers.

But this wasn’t intentional as the concept for the video was completely different. The concept wanted to show that Nichkhun was a proud Thai individual that performed on stages all over Asia including Japan. Ahead of this controversial scene, Nichkhun dances in front of the ancient palace in Seoul.

Nichkhun’s representatives explained that when they decided to cast Nichkhun for the CF they did not see any problems in the script. At the time the CF was filmed, the background where the flag was used was actually white and the flag graphics were later added in by the production crew in post production.

During a phone conversation with TVDaily on February 21st, 2PM’s agency JYP Entertainmentstated, “The problematic Thai health drink CF was one Nichkhun filmed with some of the local celebrities in Thailand and at the timing of the filming, there were no Rising Sun flags on set.”

They continued, “The video was shot on an open stage, and the staff members were discussing what kind of graphics to add, and the LED was included later along with the Rising Sun flag. We did not follow up with the production of this video until it was finished. We were careless, and we apologize.”