Ayumi Hamasaki’s Shanghai show cancelled as China-Japan rift widens

Popular Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki has cancelled a concert in Shanghai scheduled for Saturday evening, following a request to call off the performance. In a notice posted on Chinese social media on Friday afternoon, the organiser of the concert said that the event had been cancelled due to “force majeure”. The organiser gave no details but Hamasaki, Japan’s most prolific singer-songwriter, posted on social media that “key staff members were hastily gathered in the morning, and we received a...