X Japan Stop Twitter's Rebranding Efforts In Japan By Release Of New Song

JAKARTA - Elon Musk's Twitter rebranding was recently stopped in Japan due to clashes with the trademark name of the rock band, X Japan.

This month, social media users were shocked after Twitter owner Elon Musk launched a surprising brand change for the platform.

He changed his name to X and removed the bird logo. Now, the site only uses X in the United States, and every location that has a dedicated Twitter page has been updated to 'X', followed by the country's name.

However, this has proven to be a problem in Japan, as the brand name has become the trademark of the famous J-rock band, X Japan.

Formed by Toshi and Yoshiki in 1982, X Japan has released many albums and remains one of the band with the highest sales in Sakura Country.

Now, X Japan is guarding Twitter (X) from violating their names, and is also releasing their first new single in eight years.

The song titled Angel is their first new song since Born To Be Free (2015), and written by band leader, composer, drummer and pianist Yoshiki. Featuring vocals sung in English, the song contains emotional lyrics.

Talking about the potential conflict that may arise from recent Twitter changes in image, Yoshiki also said that even though he "respects" Musk, he doesn't want fans to fight about the topic, but is looking for a "positive" solution.

"First of all, I respect Elon Musk. I think he is very innovative and inspiring. I named the band 'X' decades ago in Japan," he told Consequence.

"It's not about what I have to decide, but what fans have to decide. At the same time, I don't think this is something people should debate - let's do something positive about this event."

He also assured fans concerned on the platform after news about brand changes, and wrote a language tweet telling them that according to him the band name (X Japan) was already trading, and therefore had to prevent social media platforms from taking over the name.

However, he did not mention whether the trademark was also registered outside Japan or not, and it remains unclear whether copyright would be sufficient to prevent Twitter from calling itself 'X' at home.