By Kang Hyun-kyung
Makgeolli, Korean rice wine also known as “drunken rice” in English, has been a big hit in Japan with its consumption soaring three times this year, compared with that of a year ago.
The domestic liquor became popular among Japanese, a century after Japan annexed Korea by force.
Now Korea has conquered Japanese taste buds with its cuisine and won their hearts and minds with dramas and K-pop.
“One of the distinctive trends shown in Japan after the Korean wave or hallyu was that women in their 40s and 50s have become active Internet users,” Maki Tsuchida, a journalist based in Seoul and long-time watcher of the Korean wave, told The Korea Times.
“These women, mostly housewives, explore the World Wide Web to find information about when and where they will meet with their idols. Before the Korean wave, these women were considered inactive Internet users because they were busy with household chores and support of their family members,”
But now, he added, they became active bloggers posting their messages and finding information on forthcoming fan meetings and other schedules.
Yasushi Hatta, a freelance journalist and food columnist contributing Korean food columns for Asahi.com, said Japanese people’s growing interest in Korean cuisine was partly caused by hallyu there.
“Korean restaurants have popped up here and there in Japan since 2005. Now, many Japanese enjoy a variety of Korean foods from cold noodles to bibimbap to Korean barbeque,” Hatta said.
Tsuchida said the popularity of Korean dramas reached their peak from 2003 to 2005, calling the period the golden days of the Korean wave.
“The hit drama `Winter Sonata’ was first aired in 2002 and Japanese women in their 40s, 50s and even 60s were mesmerized by the lead actor Bae Yong-joon called Yonsama in Japan, after that,” the Japanese journalist said.
Tsuchida said they were the fans of pop idols when they were in their 20s and Japanese pop music was popular.
“Now these women fans play a key role in sustaining the Korea boom in Japan,” he said.
‘Neo-hallyu’
In the early 2000s when hallyu drew attention from the Japanese media, most fans were middle-aged women.
Now, young Japanese show up at K-pop artists’ concerts or performances.
Hallyu experts say the shift in the age of fans from middle-aged housewives to young people in their 20s was made after the five-member boy band TVXQ gained popularity in Japan.
This year, several Korean girl groups, including Girls’ Generation and Kara, have made their debut there. Girls’ Generation made its official debut Wednesday.
Five-member dance group Kara performed in downtown Tokyo on Aug. 11 to promote its debut album. They were originally scheduled to perform for 30 minutes but they had to end the performance five minutes later, as thousands of young people flocked to their street concert.
Police asked them to stop performing for the safety of the audience.
Asked if these Korean girl groups can be successful, Kim Eun-joo, a publicist for Kara, pointed to the sales record of their first album, instead of giving a direct answer to the question.
“For the first week after Kara made its debut, approximately 30,000 albums were sold in Japan. I think this is a pretty good start,” she said.
Tsuchida was cautious about the prospect for Korean girl groups’ continuing popularity in Japan.
“The secret of TVXQ’s success is that young women in their 20s like them very much for they are handsome and their dance skills are awesome. To be successful, those girl groups will have to secure male fans,” he said. “It remains to be seen if they can be as successful as TVXQ because the girl groups have made their debuts lately.”
Nationalism-driven territory claim
Jin Chang-soo, a senior fellow of the Sejong Institute, a think tank, said the past century saw both positive outcomes and negative fallouts.
He said people in the two countries came to have improved impressions of their counterparts.
“Japanese people came to have a better understanding of Koreans after they watched Korean dramas. I think that probably now is the time when the reputation of Koreans is most positive among Japanese,” the scholar said.
The Korean wave in Japan prompted a sharp increase of Japanese tourists coming here.
Amid growing human and cultural exchanges, Jin said a feud between the neighboring nations has deepened over history since 2000.
Japan stepped up its territorial claim over Dokdo in school textbooks and the defense white paper.
In response, the Korean government has stepped up its effort to spread the fact that Dokdo is part of Korea.
Chung Jae-jeong, president of the Northeast Asian History Foundation, called the intensifying territory claims between the two sides since 2000 “a war over history.”
The historian said the end of the Cold War probably prompted the two nations to step up territory claims.
“During the Cold War when the two blocs ― one led by the United States and the other spearheaded by the former Soviet Union ― were in conflict, the history issue had been `sealed’ for the sake of the greater common interest ― security,” Chung said.
“In the post-Cold War era, a growing number of nations, including China, opted for nationalism. Intensified territory claims in Korea and Japan should be understood in the context of nationalism.”
source: koreatimes
shared by: sharingyoochun. net
——————–
A few lines about our boys, but we’ll share it since it’s from Koreantimes ^^
sharingyoochun
wasur3naid3
piao
ayu333
yey!!*clap.clap.clap* for our boys..i dont need to read the whole paragraph,jst the blue higlighted one..lol..
By: ryuu29 on August 31, 2010
at 5:22 am
cuz the admins read the whole thing for you already LOL
By: sharingyoochun on August 31, 2010
at 5:23 am
lol
same here, i only read the blue one xDDD
proud of our boys
and thanks4 the trans admins^^
By: hamaji on August 31, 2010
at 10:35 am
lol, me too..hahaha..selective reading ><
By: ces on August 31, 2010
at 12:54 pm
I’m nitpicking really but “they are handsome and their dance skills are awesome” made me cringe a little because imo their vocals and gorgeous ballads were the things that set them apart from the other boybands in Japan.
By: mirin on August 31, 2010
at 5:40 am
i dont understand why fans are disregarding the power of their dance.
they first gained public recognition through purple line, a powerful dance song. this starts the teens interest because before this tohoshinki fans are older women. i won’t be a fan if they’re only singing ballads. the fans love them because they can do both beautifully.
By: bellaYamapi on August 31, 2010
at 10:46 am
SKKS with subs :
http://www.viikii.net/videos/watch/99627/0/sungkyunkwan-scandal-episode-1-episode-1-part-1.html
By: lily on August 31, 2010
at 5:40 am
oops sorry, i know it has nothing to do with it ^^
thanks for translating the whole thing!!
DBSK the best!!
By: lily on August 31, 2010
at 5:43 am
thanks lily!
btw, our boys are amazing…i’m glad ppl recognize this
By: shanaxangai on August 31, 2010
at 7:31 am
omo thanks so much twinnie!
By: lily on August 31, 2010
at 7:45 am
Our boys are just amazing… ù.ù
By: Vavole on August 31, 2010
at 6:04 am
Of course the boys were responsible for shifting the wave! It took years of dedication, but I’m glad they finally acknowledge the fact that they, with their immense talent, opened this gate for other Korean artists to enter in. That’s why I hate it when netizens comment on the easy success of other bands and not properly thank DBSK for carving the path.
By: Aria on August 31, 2010
at 6:12 am
totally agree! ^^
i also dont like how netizens said the other bands are great bcoz they could easily gain popularity in jpn, without realizing its bcoz of our boys who’ve captured jpnese hearts into kpop.. XD
By: raenxia on August 31, 2010
at 6:50 am
ehrm…..they don’t like our boys just because they’re handsome or they dance well….i think it’s mainly because of their talents (singing skill) and their bonds together.
anw, thanks admin for highlighting it :> i just read those sentences and it’s enough.
By: Zung on August 31, 2010
at 6:27 am
see? even japanese people say it was dbsk who made k-pop more popular in japan. i just hate when fans from other groups don’t admit that!
i think the reporter should have mentioned our boys’ amazing voices as one of the reasons for their success in japan too…
By: tvxq on August 31, 2010
at 6:45 am
and omg, kara’s debut album sold 30,000? how long did it take for dbsk to sell 30,000 copies? that’s unfair T_T
By: tvxq on August 31, 2010
at 6:51 am
It’s okay, we can take comfort in the fact that without DBSK kara would never have been able to sell that much. We should be proud of the boys for earning the respect of the Japanese public BY THEMSELVES and for being PIONEERS in the music industry
By: Minuet on August 31, 2010
at 7:02 am
I saw a japanese tv show about Kara. Reporters met some fans in their respective bedrooms to make them show their Kara goodies.. and you could clearly see big TVXQ posters on the walls ^^ LOL
By: kenoa on August 31, 2010
at 7:39 am
@kenoa really? hha they should really thank TVXQ
TVXQ really should receive an award from Korea, because of them people are crazy about Korea ;P
By: samohty on August 31, 2010
at 10:49 am
take you long enough to put all those credit into proper word huh, Korea? If its my country if a person do something as huge as having a concert in Tokyo Dome (SOLD OUT for TWO days), its going to be all over the news the next day.
Anyway, thanks for the article. Thank you, KoreanTimes. I
By: tohoshikin on August 31, 2010
at 11:32 am
TVXQ Fighting!!
<33
By: IamMe on August 31, 2010
at 1:41 pm
I thank KoreaTimes for giving well-deserved credits to TVXQ, but they miss two most important things:
- VOCAL abilities,
- Fast adaptability to Japan culture and language.
By: karz on August 31, 2010
at 3:46 pm
Nyah. But at least they credits them. That’s for now is enough
By: karz on August 31, 2010
at 4:51 pm