They felt she was flipping their culture the bird.
Gymnastics influencer María del Mar Pérez Banus has been accused of “insulting” Japanese culture after performing a “vulgar” acrobatics routine at a sacred shrine.
A since-deleted Instagram video of her sacrilegious-seeming sequence has since been shared to X, where it amassed over nearly 19 million views.
The 25-year-old acrobat, who boasts over 140,000 followers on a page she shares with her sister, had reportedly executed the showcase at a Torii, a symbolic gateway marking the entrance to a Shinto temple.
It’s often viewed as a boundary separating the human world from the spirit world, Need To Know reported.
In the clip, Pérez — who hails from Chile but lives in the US — is seen dangling from the red structure like a pullup bar while gyrating as the hit song “Cha-Cha Slide” plays in the background.
Commenters were not amused by the defiling dance.
“This shows a lack of respect for Japanese religious culture and customs,” said one outraged viewer in a translated post on X. “I hope you never come to Japan again.”
Another fumed, “Foreigners really don’t know anything. If they break something, they’ll just run away. I wish you would stop.”
One even cited a passage from the local penal code stipulating that “any person who publicly disrespects a shrine, Buddhist temple, graveyard, or other place of worship shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than six months or a fine of not more than 100,000 yen.”
Following the backlash, the fit-fluencer posted a video of herself apologizing to fans over the insensitive stunt, claiming she didn’t realize the significance of the shrine.
“I really wasn’t thinking about what I was doing,” insisted Pérez in the mea culpa. “I want to apologize a thousand times. Please stop sending me messages and comments, I’m really sorry.”
She added, “I hope you can understand, thank you very much.”
In 2019, Pérez competed for Chile as a rhythmic gymnast at the Pan American Games and also won a silver medal at the South American Gymnastics Championships.
