Final Edited Essay!!

Nakajima Saki

ARW sec.BG

Prof. Christianson

November.10.2011

Why Do Some Japanese Feel an Antipathy Against Koreans?

On August 21 in 2011, more than two-thousand Japanese demonstrated against the Fuji broadcasting TV station (see figure1). It was because the Fuji broadcasts many Korean programs. They insisted that the Fuji treated Koreans with more favor than Japanese and called it a betrayer of Japan, and still now they attempt to continue demonstration. It is true that the Korean TV programs are increasing. According to asahi.com, Fuji broadcast Korean programs for about 38 hours in July 2011, which number was the most among the Japanese commercial broadcasting TV stations. However, the reason why the Korean TV programs are increasing is because they are cheap to broadcast while the Japanese ones need a lot of production costs (Takahisa). It is natural that the company try to reduce the expenses, so the thought that the Fuji is a betrayer of Japan is misdirected.

Figure1. Many Japanese demonstrated against the Fuji broadcasting TV station. Image from Jikkoui no demo fujitere ni honshamae de genki ni kougi no koe wo ageta [The comittee protested cheerfully in front of the office of Fuji TV broadcasting station]; Personal Photograph by Hanausagi; 18 Sep. 2011. Web; 22 Oct. 2011.

It is true that the relation seems to become familiar, because they restored diplomatic relations, and nowadays Korean culture is booming in Japan. According to Chua, who is the Head of the Department of Sociology at National University of Singapore, the current Korean wave can be said to begin since 2003, when the Korean melodrama “Winter Sonata” began to broadcast on NHK TV station. The leading actor, Bae Youn Joon became very famous in Japan and called “Yon sama”, which means “Brother Yon”. This name was selected as one of the most used words in 2004 (“Kotoshino”). As Chua also explained, this program was popular especially among Japanese middle-aged female audience (Chua) . After that, the young K-POP singers began to appear. For example, one of the popular young men’s group, Tong Vfang Xien Qi made debut in Japan in 2005. Now, the Korean girl’s groups, like KARA or Shoujojidai, are at the height of their popularity. According to Oricon, which is the company showing the many kinds of rankings, which informs Japanese of the ranking about the well-sold music and so on, their music is very popular. For example, on October 12, 2011, when KARA’s DVD “KARA’s All about Beauty” began to be sold, it was the first rank in terms of daily sales. In addition, they appear on many advertisements in the city.

However, it is true that some Japanese feel an antipathy against Koreans. According to the public-opinion poll by both Asahi Shimbun and The Dong-a Ilbo in 2010, 10% of Japanese dislike Korean (Sakurai). On the other hand, though American and Western cultures spread widely, only few Japanese criticize it. Therefore, it can be said that they do not oppose receiving other countries’ cultures, but feel an especial antipathy against Korean. In addition, some relatively young Japanese are also anti-Korean. The video recording of the demonstration against Fuji broadcasting TV station mentioned above proved that many people in their twenties and thirties participated in it (yhoogoo).

In order to deepen the longstanding friendship with Korea, it is essential to know the reasons some Japanese feel an antipathy against Korean. The three main factors are the patriotic factors, the biased information factors, and ignorance factors.

           First, some Japanese stick to the nationality. They are conscious of that they are one of the Japanese strongly, and sometimes try to take action to benefit Japan. This tendency can be seen in the discrimination came from history the cultural conservatism. Some Japanese, especially elder Japanese look down on Korean, are affected by the history. In the history, Japan and Korea has had a close, and perhaps, disagreeable connection. In the latter part of ninetieth century, Japan began to put pressure on Korea, and then since 1894 Japan placed Korea under its control substantially. In the first half of the twenty century, Japan strengthened the control with discrimination (Nahm). Therefore, some elderly Japanese continue to discriminate Korean still now. Moreover, such history produced cultural conservatism. According to Schwartz, a social psychologist working at Hebrew University, cultural conservatism means “a cultural emphasis on maintenance of the status quo, prosperity, and restraint of actions or inclinations that might disrupt the solidary group or the traditional order”(26). In other words, cultural conservatism is the way of thinking that people should keep the quality or popularity of culture and limit a bad influence from other nations. In addition, if many products of Koran culture import to Japan, the Japanese economy may be damaged, so some Japanese feel cautious of Korean action. Therefore, the nationality by which Japanese regard their own country as important makes them to feel an antipathy against Korean.

              Secondly, the biased information caused the antipathy against Korean. Media or some senders of information on the Internet want the sensational news which is attractive, so they often inform emotionally, biasedly, or even inaccurately. However, in modern times, the clear moral is lacked, and many people are deceived (Cavalier 95). In addition, it is very quick that the information spread because of the development of information technology, so the biased one is conveyed to many people fast and win the confidence.

Tsutomu Nishioka insisted that the media reported excessively or by mistake, so as a result it made the situation worse. For example, the famous Japanese newspaper, Asahi-shinbun, wrote the wrong article about the Japanese history textbook problem in 1982. It explained that the author of one textbook changed the negative word “invade” into more positive word “advance” when he or she stated the war, which irritated Korean. However, it was the false information. In the first place, the textbook author did not use the word “invade” (61). Now this mistake is clear, but the problem about the Japanese history textbook continues. Though the media should report correctly and give the hint to improve the situation, it fans the antipathy against Korean conversely.

Moreover, people on the Internet write his or her opinion and what they have seen and heard freely, so the information tends to be biased to a greater or lesser degree. This information sometimes stimulates some Japanese and makes the situation worse. The demonstration against Fuji broadcasting TV station mentioned above is one example of it. The start of this demonstration was the comment by Japanese actor Sosuke Takaoka on “Twitter” on July 23, 2011. He stated that the Fuji broadcasted the too many Korean programsand Japanese wanted the Japanese own traditional programs. This comment aroused a public response especially on the Internet (“Takaoka”). It is true that Fuji broadcasts many Korean programs as mentioned above, but it is not sure that all Japanese want to watch the own programs more than Korean ones. He was extremely emotional. It can be said that his comments are biased, and they influenced some people to think that Korean programs are not good. Then, the demonstration by anti-Korean happened. On the Internet, the minor biased information can become a big and serious problem.

Therefore, there is a lot of biased information which are given by media or someone on the Internet. Such information is possible to give the negative feeling over Korean. Or, the biased or wrong information may make the new problems, and then produces the negative image again.

Thirdly, many Japanese are ignorant about Koreans. Ignorance is possible to become antipathy, because ignorant people may believe the biased or wrong information as mentioned above. Eiko Osaka, the psychological semi-professor of Surugadai University, surveyed the images the adults have of Korea in 2005. As a result, they were divided into nineteen patterns, and the images in a higher rank are the negative image (7.2%), the information about Anti-Japanese Korean (5.7%), the North-South problem (5.2%), the mental distance (5.2%), and the economy success(5.2%). Similarly in case of the university students, the spicy food (66.7%), the drama and actors (14.7%), soccer (7.3%), and the traditional culture (6.7%). It shows that most adults imagined the negative thing which was possible to grow to the antipathy. Young Japanese did not seem to have a negative image, and their images were affected strongly by the fashion at that time. In addition, she also surveyed the images of Korean people. The adults mainly answered the positive image (22.9%), the strong self-assertion (16.5%), the solidarity as one nation (11.7%), a negative image (9.6%). Unexpectedly, many adults imagined the positive thing about Korean people unlike with Korea as one nation. Also, university students mainly answered the positive image (16.3%), “I do not know”(16.3%), the physical characteristics (15.5%), and the negative image (14.7%) (43). Those answers are vaguer than adults’ ones. It seems that young Japanese image the popular Korean culture including the entertainment, or the negative information given by media or Internet, or they are not interested in Korean very much. In all cases, they do not know a lot about Korean.

One of the reasons young Japanese are ignorant about Korean is because they are not taught about Korean well at school. According to “Basic Plan for the Promotion of Education”, which means the guide about what and how to teach, the Japanese government does not decide to study about Korean in elementary school. In junior high school and high school, the students have to study about the history concerning Korea, but they need not focus on the control over Korea (Japan MEXT). In this way, it is very natural that many young Japanese get information mainly by media and that they do not about Korean very much, especially about the diplomacy problems or history. The lack of sufficient education about Korean makes Japanese ignorant, and then increases the risk of hating Korean.

In conclusion, there are three conceivable main causes of Japanese antipathy against Korean; that is, the patriotic factor which sometimes tend to be exclusive, the biased or wrong information which produce the negative feeling over Korean, and the ignorance about Korean on account of the lack of education. In order to lessen the antipathy against Korean, the three points will be important. First one is non-persisting in history. It is important to learn from the past, but if Japanese persist in it too much, they cannot adapt their aspects on Korean to the modern or future situation. Moreover, it often makes people too passionate. It is necessary to respond flexibly at times. Second one is the faculty for discerning the true information. Nowadays, there is a lot of information, but a part of them is wrong or biased. It is needed to check on the source of information and whether it can be explained logically or not. Third one is deep acknowledgement about Korean. Especially, young people should learn about the history and the problems between Japan and Korea. If the Japanese government decides to teach it at school, it will be well known in the future.
              As mentioned above, now Korean culture is booming, which is very delightful. However, the current situation is only superficial friendly relations because the antipathy against Korean still remains. Therefore, it is important to stop persisting in history, discern the true information, and know Koreans, in order to resolve the particular antipathy against Korean and change the strained relations. Those Japanese own changes will make it possible to improve the relationship between Japanese and Korean.

Works Cited

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Chua, Beng Huat. “East Asian Pop Culture: Consumer Communities and Politics of the　National.”Cultural Space and Public Sphere in Asia. Asia’s Future Initiative, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2011.
 

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Nahmm, Andrew C, ed. Korea Under Japanese Colonial Rule. Michigan: the Center for

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