Sanrio, the Japanese company behind the popular character Hello Kitty, apologised on Thursday over its tie-up with a TV spy drama criticised as anti-China, cancelling a merchandise collaboration with the show.
It comes days after Chinese sponsors dropped football superstar Kylian Mbappe over comments calling communist leader Mao Zedong a dictator, for which the Real Madrid forward later apologised.
In one episode of Vivant, a drama with a wide audience in Japan, a Chinese-affiliated organisation had been depicted torturing a member of the Japanese military's unofficial spy unit.
"We have recently received feedback from various quarters regarding the collaborative merchandise with the Japanese television drama VIVANT," Sanrio said in a statement.
"We sincerely apologise for any concern this may have caused."
The project "contains expressions that are inconsistent with the Sanrio Group's corporate philosophy", it said.
Sanrio said it had decided to cease this collaboration, as well as all subsequent projects and promotional campaigns.
Hello Kitty and other cute Sanrio characters had been depicted as characters from Vivant — currently in its second season — in a range of novelty merchandise items.
Before the apology, Chinese state media outlet the Global Times had accused the show of smearing China, saying it had sparked shock and fierce backlash on social media.
The series reflects the "anti-China narrative of the current conservative Japanese right-wing administration, catering to the trend of right-wing extremism in Japanese society", it said.
Long-frosty ties between the countries have worsened since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested last year that Japan could intervene militarily in any conflict over Taiwan.
The drama was a completely fictional entertainment work, private broadcaster TBS, which created Vivant, said in a statement.
"There is absolutely no intention to deliver messages that disparage any particular nation or hurt public sentiment," it said.
Comments posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo before Sanrio's announcement had angrily criticised the merchandise tie-up.
"Sanrio, you are a brand for conveying a message of beauty and goodness, why have you got involved with this?" one post said. — AFP