TOKYO (AP) — A popular teenage all-girls band in Japan is under fire for performing in outfits resembling Nazi-era German military uniforms.

The members of Keyakizaka46 appeared recently in black knee-length dresses that look like military overcoats, and black capes and officer caps with a Nazi-like eagle emblem.

The U.S.-based Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a statement Monday saying it was disgusted by the uniforms and calling on the group's label, Sony Music, and its producer to apologize. The center is a human rights group focused on anti-Semitism and hate speech.

"Watching young teens on the stage and in the audience dancing in Nazi-style uniforms causes great distress to the victims of the Nazi genocide," Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center, said in the statement.

Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) officials were not immediately available for comment.

The Japan Times newspaper said that Keyakizaka46, formed in August 2015 by producer Yasushi Akimoto, is a branch of the hugely successful AKB48 group. Keyakizaka46's first single, "Silent Majority," was No. 1 on Japanese charts after selling about 260,000 copies within a week of its April 6 release, the newspaper reported.