Regular viewers of Japanese TV may remember young Haruka Christine's first appearances on the variety-show circuit in early 2010, when she had her fellow entertainers and audiences in stitches.

Here was a girl of 18, often dressed in traditional Swiss garb and every inch the European, who would abruptly transform into a wild-eyed creature exuberantly aping the acts of well-known Japanese comedians. Regular-looking foreign girl does zany Japanese impressions? So far, so Japan.

Nearly four years later, having racked up dozens of TV appearances, Christine is more likely to be found discussing national politics than cracking jokes. Most recently, she came under fire from Japan's notorious Net-uyoku (right-wing Internet trolls) after she was asked about the view from abroad regarding Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's December visit to the contentious Yasukuni Shrine, where the remains of Japan's war dead, including 14 Class-A war criminals, are enshrined. Overseas, she suggested, some liken the visits to a modern-day German leader praying at Adolf Hitler's tomb. Though the comparison is often made abroad, and despite Christine offering no opinion on whether the comparison was fair, Internet forums were abuzz with angry discussion about the subject. She has recently been on a mission to get young people talking about politics, although this particular controversy was probably not what she had in mind.