Japanese conservatives declare war on Korean culture
Mon Aug 22, 2011 12:40AM
Michael Penn, Press TV, Tokyo
In a few neighborhoods in Tokyo, the Korean language can be found on the shop signs almost as easily as Japanese.
This reflects the fact not only that the two nations are neighbors, but that close to a million people in Japan either hold Korean nationality or are of Korean ethnic heritage.
In recent years, too, there has been a Korean boom in Japan, as South Korean television and pop music has become popular among many Japanese young people.
But these people don't like what they're seeing, and they have taken to the streets to protest the Japanese television station they hold most responsible for promoting the Korean boom.
Nearly 5,000 people participated in the protest march and, somewhat unusually for Japan, the large majority of them were young people.
Some of the protesters showed their energy…
This flier handed out by the protesters asks, “Is Fuji TV a Korean television station”? They are complaining, for example, that during the time of the earthquake, the station was broadcasting Korean dramas.
When Press TV contacted Fuji Television for their response to the protest, the spokesman told us that they had no comment to make.
One of the protesters' complaints is that they say the Japanese media ignores them. In fact, while camera crews from Korean television news stations covered the event, the mainstream Japanese media was nowhere to be found.
But some conservative politicians did arrive to cheer on the young marchers.
What the rising voice of conservative young Japanese may mean for the future of Japan-Korea relations is a question that analysts will now be watching closely.