Makoto Shinkai, the famous Japanese animation film director and writer of works such as 'Your Name,' 'Weathering with You,' and 'Suzume's Door Lock,' reacted to a media report concerning the National Tax Service's press release by saying it is "interesting."

On the 14th, Makoto Shinkai shares an article related to the ‘Locked Door of Suzume’ used in the South Korean National Tax Service press release on his X account. /Courtesy of Makoto Shinkai X capture
On the 14th, Makoto Shinkai shares an article related to the ‘Locked Door of Suzume’ used in the South Korean National Tax Service press release on his X account. /Courtesy of Makoto Shinkai X capture

On the 14th, Shinkai shared an article from a domestic media outlet on his X (formerly Twitter) with the comment "Interesting! ^^"

The article introduced the press release announced by the National Tax Service on the 11th of last month. The National Tax Service noted that it will conduct tax audits on wedding, childbirth, and early childhood education companies that, while imposing excessive expenditures on 2030 consumers, evade their own taxes by various means such as "sales omission, business site division, and expense inflation."

In doing so, the National Tax Service titled the subtitle as "Correcting the practices of opaque contracts and price exploitation through S·D·M's Door Lock." S·D·M refers to the necessary studios, dresses, and makeup in the marriage process. This was a parody of one of Shinkai's representative works, 'Suzume's Door Lock.' At that time, the use of such newly coined terms in the official press release by the National Tax Service created a buzz.

Shinkai, who is regarded as the "master of animation" following Hayao Miyazaki, has over 1.112 million followers on X. The National Tax Service article he shared garnered more than 134,000 views and over 1,700 "likes."

Internet users following him unexpectedly encountered the issues of Korean S·D·M. They commented, "I've heard that for this reason, Korean couples are increasingly simplifying their weddings or only registering their marriage," and "It's interesting to parody it this way."