Anger in Japan as violent death threats lead to cancellation of game and anime events 

Numerous game and anime events have been cancelled in Japan recently due to serious threats made against employees and attendees. Consequently, these incidents have attracted widespread response from the Japanese media and fans. 

Earlier this month it was revealed that Nintendo has been receiving persistent threats against their company, employees and players. In response, Nintendo cancelled Nintendo Live 2024, which was due to be held in Tokyo in January. The company has gone on to postpone all its upcoming esports events for Splatoon and Mario Kart.  

It is not just Nintendo that has experienced this problem. AniLoca FES is a new anime event that was due to be held for the first time in Shiga prefecture on December 22. However, earlier this month, the event’s organizers revealed that they and the authorities were emailed a long list of threats. It seems the threats made included “stabbing students at a nearby station, pouring gasoline inside the venue and setting it alight with the aim of killing attendees and shooting to death a specific artist invited to the event.” As a result, the organizer made the decision to cancel, stating that “No matter how many times we thoroughly considered the situation, we could not come up with a way to hold the event while guaranteeing everyone’s safety.”(Source: AniLoca Project) 

Fifteen artists including singers and voice actors were due to attend the event. In a comment to Japanese media, Yamada expressed his anger at the situation stating; “We are really very angry at this criminal behavior, which is absolutely unacceptable.” He went on to add that the organizers are determined to find a way to hold the first AniLoca FES one day and hopes that fans will wait until that day. 

These incidents have elicited strong responses from users on X, many of them condemning the actions of those who send death threats.  

Another user commented how similar the threats against Aniloca were to the ones made in 2020 towards Revue Starlight, which caused one of their Osaka events to be cancelled. In both incidences, threats were made to kill specific performers and to recruit co-conspirators through blogs, as well as to commit mass murder through arson.  

All these threats have also reminded people of the devastating Kyoto Animation arson attack in 2019 that killed 36 people and injured many more. The trial is currently on-going, with the court expected to reach a verdict at the end of January. Since 2019, there have been several similar threats made towards game and anime related companies and employees, such as those against Sega and Square Enix.