Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton)
November 2025

Brighton faced backlash after Mitoma and an academy player posed holding FC-style cards featuring an image resembling former Japanese Imperial Army officer Hiroo Onoda, with the post going viral in China given the historic atrocities linked to Japan’s wartime regime. The club issued a formal apology, stating they “sincerely” regretted any offence caused and distancing themselves from the imagery after the post spread widely on Weibo, triggering a PR crisis that underlined the sensitivities around using historical military figures in promotional content.