“Long Live China!”: Chinese players hijack Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine Pokémon Go gym

Some Chinese Pokémon Go players have apparently teamed up to conquer the in-game gym located in Tokyo’s infamous Yasukuni Shrine.

It appears that a group of Chinese players have staked out Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine — a venue infamous for enshrining convicted Japanese war criminals from the country’s WWII era of imperialism — and a player using a Dragonite renamed, “Long Live China!,” has become the area’s gym leader.

According to the Shanghaiist, some other Japanese landmarks have been “monopolized” by Chinese players to the apparent annoyance of Japanese Go players.

Currently, it seems that the Chinese government’s blocking of Google’s GPS software has prevented Pokémon Go developer Niantic from releasing the game in the Chinese mainland, so only Chinese gamers living abroad or those using third party tools are able to play.

To say that relations between the Chinese and Japanese governments are a little sour would be an understatement, and some Chinese Pokémon Go players are apparently on a quest to conquer controversial Japanese landmarks in the game to troll Japanese users, though most are just happy to get to play the game. But, given the enormous popularity of the new mobile game and the great lengths players go to in order to conquer local gyms, we worry that the actions of these Chinese players may actually spark a digital World War III, killing untold thousands of adorable monsters.

Source: Shanghaiist
Image: Reddit

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