Popularity of Korean Pop Culture in Japan: it is not temporary

Korean Pop Culture: it's still popular among Japanese

 One of the things I have been quite surprised since I came to Japan six months ago is that Korean Pop culture is getting more popular. The popularity is not restricted just to mid-aged ladies who go crazy over Korean Dramas. It's been quite widespread from generation to generation(but I would exclude mid-aged and older Japanese males). Before coming to Japan, I thought the boom was exaggerated by patriotic Korean journalists. However, the reality is the boom is still going on and may not end soon. Let me show a few cases.

Case 1: a grandma of an old udon restaurant in Hiroshima.

 I visited Hiroshima last April to see a friend of mine. I stayed in a hostel the night I arrived and the next morning I found an old and a bit rusty udong restaurant nearby. I tend to look for old restaurants thinking that sometimes I get luck having a rare chance to eat something traditional but not well-known. There was none except for me and the old lady. I introduced myself as a Korean because I had to have her understand why I repeated asking some questions(I still have difficulty understanding local accents). She showed me an old magazine with broadcasting schedules for Korean Dramas. We talked over a very old but legendary Korean Drama titled 'Winter Sonata.' It was aired more than 15 years ago, but the main actors and actresses were still her favorites. One impressive thing was that she thought Korean ladies are quite tall(actually, the main actress in the drama is quite tall even as a Korean lady). I got free rice thanks to being a Korean. I was privileged not discriminated.

Case 2: my two co-workers are big Big-Bang fans.

 I don't know their exact ages. Probably late 20s or early 30s. Japanese don't ask people their age like Koreans do, which I like. Both of them have been to Big-Bangs concerts. We happened to go to a Karaoke together and one of them tried to sing Big-Bang's songs like 'Fantastic Baby,' I helped them pronounce a few words correctly. Doing the rap part is quite hard for them.

Case 3: a young guest  was a big fan of Twice.

 'Twice' has been commercial models for Yahoo Mobile quite a while. Their pictures are everywhere. There are toy vending machines from which you can get a cocoon with a toy in after slotting coins in the supermarket where I go quite often. The theme of the vending machine was 'Twice.'

Teenagers shopping in a souvenir store for K-pop Stars in Canal City in Fukuoka 

The Past of Korea and Japan: Colony and Colonizer

 There are much more cases which exemplifies the boom of Korean Pop Culture. But the thing I wanna say is not about my pride over my culture. Considering the history of early 20th century between Japan and Korea, it is a very unique cultural phenomenon which are rarely seen in other areas in the globe. More specifically, Korea was the colony and Japan was the colonizer. During the colonization, Korean culture was treated inferior to Japanese one. One of the most distinctive examples was that during the late colonization era, Koreans were not allowed to speak Korean in public places such as schools and even forced to change their names to Japanese ones. Those kinds of oppression affected people's frame of mind in both cultures. Koreans felt inferior to Japanese culture and thought Japanese culture was more advanced than Korean one(like it has been more westernized). For instance, it was not allowed for Japanese pop entertainers to do business like releasing albums or holding concerts until late 1990s. It was because of the fear that if Japanese pop culture are allowed to be imported, it will dominate Korea and Korea would be culturally colonized again.

 Partly the fear was plausible. Officially and unofficially so many things from Japan were copied and reproduced in Korea. Many of the cartoons I enjoyed watching when I was a kid were made in Japan.

 Generally, even though a country became independent from the colonizer country, the country's cultural hegemony tend to keep strong hold in the the country. Looking at India, South Africa and other countries which were under the umbrella of British Empire,

we can see that people with high education or status prefer British culture. The cultural hegemony has not been eradicated yet.

 But when it comes to the cultural flow between Korea and Japan, the tide changed opposite comparatively quite suddenly. You can see it talking with Japanese and Korean youngsters. In spite of invalidity for generalization, I see the changed tide. Even some Korean youngsters started to think Japanese Pop culture is quite unique but a bit oldish. They say their fashion and styles were things like 10 years ago they saw in Korea. Even some Japanese youngsters think Korean pop culture is quite cool and more fashionable than Japanese one. 

 Recently I saw some interesting goods with brand 'Seoul.'  Avoiding the rain, I got into the biggest mall in Fukuoka named Canal City. I walked around and checked the prices. There were green T-shirts with logo 'Seoul.' In Zara, there was perfume with brand 'Seoul.'

 As a Korean who had been fascinated with Sony Walkman and Anime like Dragon Ball and Slam Dunk and taken it for granted that Most of Japanese goods are more sophisticated and fashionable than Korean ones, the ongoing tide of Korean Pop culture in Japan looks quite amazing and in a way unbelievable. 

in H&M

in Zara