City pop is known for its visuals almost as much as its sound. Nagai Hiroshi is the illustrative mastermind behind many of these images of the high life, with his most famous work being the cover art for Ohtaki Eiichi‘s seminal 1981 album “A Long Vacation.”
The artist has taken to Twitter, confused that his work has now been co-opted by none other than the United States’ Department of Homeland Security. Since the second presidency of Donald Trump started nearly a year ago, the department has embarked on a reign of terror, harassing citizens and non-citizens alike as part of the president’s mission to rid the country of undocumented immigrants. All of this is being done under the premise that doing so will return the United States to some sort of former glory it once had before it became a more diverse nation. In actuality, all it has really done is create more discord in an already deeply divided country.
On December 31, the Department of Homeland Security tweeted a Nagai image, ” Untitled (Beachcomber Series)”, overwritten with a caption that reads “America After 100 Million Deportations.”
Upon seeing this the next day, Nagai tweeted that the image was used without his permission, and expressed confusion as to what to do about the situation.
The Department of Homeland Security has previously a number of artists work without their permission as part of its divisive campaign, including Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo, both of whom spoke out against the practice.
