aespa continues promoting their releases in Japan. After their Tokyo Dome concert held in April 2025 — the first-ever solo concert by a K-pop girl group at this iconic venue, attended by over 50,000 fans — the group was recently announced to participate in the 76th edition of Kouhaku Uta Gassen.
On November 14, 2025, NHK (Japan’s national public broadcasting organization) officially announced the artist lineup for the 76th Kouhaku Uta Gassen, the most famous annual TV program in Japan, broadcast every December 31. It is a national event that divides performers into the “Red Team” (women) and the “White Team” (men), watched by over 50 million Japanese viewers.
However, the announcement sparked controversy among Japanese netizens after old photos of the Chinese member Ningning resurfaced, along with a comment considered offensive.
Earlier this year, Ningning had shared with fans a picture of a “nuclear bomb model light,” which recreates the mushroom cloud that instantly killed 110,000 civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, describing the lamp as “cute.” This triggered widespread backlash due to the historical sensitivity of the mushroom cloud.
One netizen wrote:
“The meaning of the mushroom cloud image is: first, the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Second, the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Even Japanese people themselves sometimes do not fully grasp the meaning of these images. This is the only photo in human history taken right after tens of thousands were killed at once. Immediate deaths: 70,000 civilians in Hiroshima, 40,000 in Nagasaki.”
This was seen as mockery of the Japanese people, leading some to trend hashtags demanding aespa’s removal from the show: “I found this post and learned something I never wanted to know. It’s not cute at all. Why do they want someone who mocks Japanese people on the show? Isn’t NHK Japan’s national broadcaster funded by reception fees paid by the Japanese people? As a citizen of Hiroshima, I strongly oppose having Ningning from aespa on Kouhaku.”
Fans defended Ningning, pointing to the bloody history of the Japanese Empire, which occupied Korea and China and committed atrocious crimes: “So she has to apologize for buying a lamp, but can you go decades without apologizing for killing and raping half of Asia?”
