TOKYO, Japan: Japan’s Ministry of Justice said Friday it would end its partnership with Netflix dating show “Badly in Love” following criticism over its portrayal of participants with criminal pasts.
The ministry’s rehabilitation bureau had launched the campaign earlier in August. It promoted the programme’s themes of rehabilitation, atonement and personal change.
However, the ministry said it received concerns that the collaboration could cause distress among victims of crime. “It was never the intention of this collaboration to endorse crime or delinquency,” the ministry said in a statement.
The backlash intensified after a Season 2 participant said on the programme that he had been arrested as a teenager for setting someone on fire.
“Badly in Love” features young people linked to Japan’s “yankii” delinquent subculture. Participants have included former yakuza and motorcycle gang members.
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Meanwhile, Netflix will continue airing the series without government support. Executive producer Dai Ota told AFP in April that producers had discussed how to avoid appearing to condone violence.
He said the programme aimed to show marginalised young people struggling and changing. The ministry said ending the partnership did not mean rejecting efforts to rehabilitate people who had committed crimes in the past.
