The conflict between Japan and China over the Senkaku/Diaoyu archipelago has spilled over to an unlikely location—Calgary, Alberta, to be exact.  As the Calgary Herald reports, a downtown karaoke bar has fuelled the flames with a sandwich-board message in Chinese stating “DiaoyuIslands belong to China. Temporarily not serving Japanese people.”

After one young patron was offended by this pronouncement, he posted a picture of said proclamation to Reddit, and that’s when the Mitt really hit the fan.  “It’s the owner’s loss. If they don’t admit certain customers, it’s their loss because the patrons will go elsewhere,” said Rocky Oishi, past-president of the Calgary Japanese Community Association.  Of course, he’s speaking strictly within a Calgarian context; the likes of Sony, Panasonic and Honda aren’t likely to follow suit in the People’s Republic…

Faced with the loss of paying customers, the bar management is saying it was just a joke. According to the Herald, one manager, who didn’t want her name published, “said she wrote the sign as a joke while singing, off duty, with some Japanese customers.”  She also claimed to be drunk at the time, adding that no one really reads the sign anyways.  Not unless you’re a long-haired freaky person, that is.