The ever-useful “Ninki Blog Ranking” lists the most-viewed Japanese blogs in a number of different categories. There are blogs for mothers who wish to help their children study more effectively, blogs devoted to tracking the movements of celebrities, and blogs that discuss the best way to diet. And, like any other online community, Japan has no shortage of blogs devoted to punditry, with most of the discussion focusing on the deteriorating relationship amongst Japan and its Asian neighbours, China and the two Koreas.
According to the blog rankings, Japanese bloggers are in no mood for reconciliation. And despite the popularity of all things Korean in Japan, the so-called Kan-ryuu, or Korean Wave, many bloggers are taking aim at Korea.
Choose (what you believe) Carefully! Information on Korea is the sixth most popular blog in Japan right now, according to Ninki Blog Ranking, and bills itself as an antidote for the Japanese “mass media's tendency to beautify Korea.”
Other popular political blogs include Japan's Outrageous Asian Neighbours (currently the 7th most popular Japanese-language blog), We Don't Need No Kan-ryuu (ranked at number 11), and The Truth About Asia - what the mass media doesn't tell you about China and Korea (occupying 12th place).
In general, Japanese bloggers are expressing frustration and irritation towards Korea and China in the wake of the anti-Japanese protests that occured in those countries this past spring, as well as in the face of tensions with Korea over the ownership of an island in the Japan Sea (or the East Sea, as called by Koreans) called Takeshima by Japan and Tokdo by Korea.
Japanese political bloggers are discussing one book in particular - Ken-Kan-Ryuu, which loosely translates as the Anti-Korean Wave. According to the publisher's blurb, the book (actually a manga comic book) documents the intellectual development of Nakame Okiayu, an “ordinary” high school student who finds history difficult, but has the “vague understanding that Japan has done bad things to Korea.” All this changes when Nakame becomes a university student and learns the “surprising truth about Korea and its history.”
After being “banned” for two years, the book was finally published on July 24, 2005. Sales are brisk, and Amazon Japan warns that, due to the book's popularity, delivery of Ken-Kan-Ryuu should take four to six weeks (Amazon Japan usually delivers in two or three days).
In the case of Ken-Kan-Ryuu, it is indeed possible to judge a book by it's cover. “This is an extremely dangerous book,” the book jacket warns. “Why did Korea invade Japan's territory, the Takeshima Islands?” screams another blurb. “There is no need to apologize to Korea or offer reparations,” shouts another.
Historical revisionism has gained popularity in Japan over the last decade. While many apologists for Japan's wartime past are simply obnoxious at worst, such as Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, there are other hip, charismatic commentators like Yoshinori Kobayashi, author of the popular Sensou-ron series of manga books, who are adept at arguing that, thanks to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan was a victim rather than a victimizer during the last war.
Other arguments percolating through the Japanese blogosphere state that Japan was pushed into the war by the Unites States, and that Japan was actually liberating Asia from European colonizers with the hopes of fostering autonomy and independence of all nations, economic progress, and the eradication of racial discrimination.
Much of the tension between Japan and its Asian neighbours has been due to revisionist history textbooks authored by the Japanese Society for Textbook Reform. So far, two school boards have adopted the controversial textbooks this year, and one of the texts is published online in English, Korean and Mandarin.
The offending textbooks, and the ongoing six-party talks on the fate of the Korean Peninsula, should create plenty of controversy for the rest of the summer, which in turn creates plenty of topics for Japanese pundits to blog about.
Hmm
I’m just a high school student living in Washington..
I’m korean and have MANY MANY Japanese and Chinese friend.
Reading all of these comments, anyone can tell that Americans or whoever is living the comments are favoring(?) Japan.
I know I’m young and everything, but I talk about these issues with my friends. I DO think Koreans and Chinese have “negative” point of view towards Japanese, but I don’t see why no one understands why this happens. (Talking about Korea in particular) It hasn’t been long since Koreans were liberated by Japanese. Personally, for example, I see Jewish criticizing Germans ALL THE TIME, because I’m taking a lot of history classes,(I like to learn about European history..;;) and people seems to understand them because, obviously, Jewish are being successful all around the world! There are movies, books, and every year, there are some events that remind us (ALL ethnic groups) of the Holocaust and everything. However, Koreans are not being recognized as a “successful” country YET, (well, the country’s so small and is DIVIDED which makes them extremely hard), so many people tend to think that Koreans are “blaming” or “Anti-Japanese”-ing with no reason. To tell the truth, like some Jewish does, Koreans were killed as many as Jewish and of course, cruelly too. I think Japanese being the “world power” and “the king of industry” makes Americans favor them, and I do too!, but they better be more open to what Koreans feel. Please do not differ Jewish being killed by Germans and Koreans being killed by Japanese. It is still a wonder to me why Koreans are not making this known to the world, I’m guessing probably because Koreans THEMSELVES are not known to the world.
Korean wave… Japanese are having the anti stuff and everything right..?
Well, I don’t understand- -
They liked us first.. and they can’t see us being known to the world, and are getting all these reasons out to hate us back- -
We did nothing ok….?
We made our movies…. we made our songs.. we made our dramas.. and Japanese and Chinese or whatever happens to like them..
It looks really foolish and pathetic to find reasons to hate us-_-;
Honestly, if you search DEEPLY about Korean history, Japanese and Chinese attacked us infinitely and Korean is known as a pieceful country..[the flag itself means it], but being small, and the only attack we had was to defend ourselves. Anyone might say this is weak, but hey, we are smallT-T;;
Maybe .. the reason Americans tend to view Koreans as Japanese is because they are more “globalized”, but It is wrong to ignore the Koreans’ point of view. It’s not a long ago history. I heard from my grandparents about the stories.. it makes me cry^^;; haha
and the island…….?
well..it’s Korean island..[sry!! sounds like i’m supporting cuz I’m korean)
There are sooooooo many documents where Japanese state themselves that it is Korean island and if you see the maps where some Europeans drew a long time ago, it’s marked as Koreans. Also, not only Europeans, Chinese and Japanese, whatever~, if you look for their maps throughout the history, it has been ours.
And my mom says the reason we can’t take it to…the international court(?) is because there are few judges and one of them is Japanese. Having one Japanese judge, and having them already established a lot of diplomatic relations with other countries (while blocking all the access to and fro Korea), it is obvious to ANYONE that there is high chance of us losing OUR ISLAND..
It’s kind of sad, u know
Americans themselves say about democracy, world police and everything
but not a SINGLE country defend those who are weak(YET, I hope).
I see Korean wave in a positive way for being Korean.
I don’t care if they hate them or not
but hey, it’s so stupid to find a reason to hate them-_- if it’s not related to pop culture, cuz that’s what Koreans are influencing(?) at this time. And like those say, it’s temporary-_-; I see it REALLY pathetic for Japanese to freak out to see Koreans rocking the pop culture of Asia…. after all, you guys are the “civilized world power”..-_- act like it….?! … really- -;
Hello everyone, I’m a student at the University of Illinois and I just happened to be linked to this site from a friend’s recommendation and I thought I’d leave a mark.
Honestly, I wish all sides would just drop the subject. There will never be a solution to this, and bringing this subject up will only bog down progress beause they have “a history of invading other people and stealing their women and writing accurate history only in anime”. Yes, history is often a way to judge a person’s characteristics, but lets not use that “one size fits all, all Koreans play Starcraft” theory. Lets be honest here, (and let me mention that I am a FULL Korean who just came to the US to study), what the Koreans, Chinese, and just about any nation that bashes Japan (and vice versa) really want is probably just to shame the opposing side, so they can feel snug about things. To pride-driven people (who often speak the loudest and don’t always have the prudent leadership potential to back that up), everything of their culture is the best. However, don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying that promoting your culture is a bad thing. It’s a good thing. With the world getting smaller, I think we should all make room for each other. Life, evolution, progress is to me, like a long car journey(improving technology) eating cheese burgers(junkfood, luxuries, Western culture, etc.). The end is not near (hopefully) and people are getting fatter, louder, and noisier. If we don’t take into account of the people next to us, (also getting fatter) the ride will be very uncomfortable.
I find it very odd that the mobs on all parties today will pay a lot of money for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and etc. luxuries and will continue to rant about how “we were invaded”, “no you invaded us first”, “no that’s not true, we were invaded first” etc. Folks, we were all invaded at one point. Nobody ever brings up how your brother invaded your room and stole your iPod and you want a formal apology at the dinner table. And no, I have not banned my anything of my brother’s items in my room. (That wasn’t really funny but I had to make a connection.)
People, the dinosaurs died b/c they did not look into the future and could not adapt. Adapt to this reality – with more luxuries available now than ever before, we’re going to see more loud mouths (from all over the world), we’re going to see more pricks, we’re going to see a lot more fraud because a man or woman in Micronesia with internet access will try and take advantage of somebody in the United States because that man or woman fruad-ilizer knows that it’ll be damn near impossible for the crime to be traced. (Unless it was something huge or, G.W. Bush who’ll just drop bomb just short of a nuke’ya’ler bomb on “Micro-what”? – Note, I do not believe the US is really all that warmongering, although the cultural attitude towards war has really changed in the past few years) Lets be optimistic, hope for the best, work for the best, do our best, and get the best. (Competition is good for you, as long as you don’t like kill the opponents or make derogatory statements. It’s supposed to make you work harder.)
People, be honest, be proud of who you are (even though some may start disadvantaged physically, mentally, or economically, some schmuck saying that to you doesn’t mean you are.), set goals, go after what you want and earnestly try and achieve that, instead of just sitting in the back whining about how you can’t take Sally out for a date. Really, sometimes, not everything you see on MTV is the most prudent jugements. (Honestly, just because Eminmem who sings and raps about problems in the United States[many which I must say, are very real], would you vote him for President? Though I must say, Marilyn Manson’s interview about violence did have a point.)
Well that’s my speech.
Live well and prosper.
Hi, I am a Korean studying in NY about Japan and Korean minorities in Japan. Seems that all the conflicts and issues between Korea and Japan were bombarded all at once in 2005 in particular and they continue as the two nations get closer economically and in communication.
Did you read the NYTimes’ article about this issue? It is not free but if you are a student, you might want to access the article through school library.
“Ugly Images of Asian Rivals Become Best Sellers in Japan”
by NORIMITSU ONISHI, November 19, 2005 Saturday (NYT)
What is amazing to me about this blog is the date “July 29th, 2005″
I still can’t believe that NYT could lag behind an ordinary blog like this for about four months…
On regards to all the hate from all parties… people with low self-esteem are bashing others just to make themselves feel better about themselves. Whether it be japanese, korean, or chinese, there really is no victim in this situation. Japanese trying to clear their conscience by twisting the truth, Chinese being gullible to fall into anti-japanese propoganda, Koreans arguing about trivial matters.. all of it is killing progress. They should all just shut the… stop, and think of the consequences of their actions. I have friends of all three races, and with so much similarities between the three, it makes no sense, not to get along. Like three proud siblings, no one wants to submit to each other.
For Korea, the annexation by Japan, and the times that followed were a difficult, and painful memory. Losing parts of their culture, history, their existence, and their very identity is unexcusable. Not enough time has passed for those scars to have healed. Even still, dwelling on it doesn’t do shiza. Stop being so petty.
For China, with over 5 thousand proud years of history, and the source for most of Korea, and Japan’s culture, the ignorance of Japan, and the desecration of the events at Nanking, is a big slap in the face. Even still, history is there to learn from, not make political issues. You guys have the fastest growing economy as well as the largest population in the world. The whole, “poor me, pity me,” act doesn’t suit your stature.
For Japan, the youngest out of the three, biggest economic power of Asia, and the forerunner of industrialism, being blammed, and kept down isn’t fair for anyone. Everyone has a right to be proud of who they are. Making up lies, and distorting the truth, to encourage nationalism, are acts of desperation. Stop making excuses, fess up, apologize, and move on.
Bottom line. No one is better than the other. No country is better than another. Please stop bickering like old ladies, and help each other out. Isn’t that the neighborly thing to do? Please. You look like fools. Don’t fall for the political rhetorics, and propoganda. Each side is trying to make it a black and white issue, when it’s all shades of grey. By the way, I am Korean.
Here here for Muchkang, Lord of War and Christine Kim for their excellent and insightful posts.
I too, just for the record, am sick and tired of seeing stupid, racist bloggers posting “hate Koreans” or “hate Japanese” posts on a stupid blogger site. The fact that they can be so bold with their words when they are really doing nothing courageous by posting behind a made-up name sickens me to the core. I for one see no point in this endless argument. I, for topic’s sake, am a Korean-American citizen, living in New York. I understand why my country has a deep resentment against Japanese, and I can also understadn why Japanese are reacting the way they are…in essence, can’t we just shake and move along? Though I’ve never met a Japanese person before, I’m pretty sure there are many good Japanese people out there who are honestly open-minded and sincere, as well as the racist, ultra-conservative, right-winged bigots Japanese who consider themselves racially superior to Koreans in every way. And vice versa with the Koreans too….there are good koreans and bad Koreans. Surely EVERYONE knows that in every country there are good and bad people, that one’s moral character is never determined by a national or political boundary. To say that ALL Koreans are bad or ALL Japanese are bad is just as ludicrous, narrow-minded and shallow as saying the world is divided by black and white. What we need here is the UNDERSTANDING that peope of a different race have differing opinions even within themeselves, and that the only way of going anywhere is to fess-up, forgive and forget. I for one am sick of certain people using the events in Asia as a justification for bashing the country they dislike. People as such (pardon the French) are pompous, conceited, cowardly, idiotic, racist, narrow-minded, hateful, spiteful, bitter and above all low in self-esteem if they make extremist comments on an issue they know little or nothing about. These people will never know the whole truth about anything and go about their lives with only half a brain, stirring up Nazi-ish hatred around the world without knowing why the hell they are doing it. They refuse to acknowledge either Korea’s or Japan’s contributions to the world not because they are right, but because they CHOOSE to be blind, because any crucial fact indicating otherwise will topple and shatter their own pompous, artificial image they have of themselves and the world. Thus, I make my point across to those people: Shut up and go away. Ranters like you have nothing better to do than to get on people’s nerves, so its better if you just go and join a hate group or whatever. As for the people, like Christine Kim and the others, who are open-minded enough to even consider both sides of the argument, I applaud heartily. We need more cool-headed, moderate people in this world. And like them, I agree that I’m sick of this whole subject and that there is no point whatsoever in arguing on this site. The only way is to learn, heal and grow, and always get as much information as you can before making a generalization. That is what Korea and Japan should do in my opinion to settle the whole argument – Japan officially acknowledges all the wartime crimes and Korea stops bothering them about thier past. there, problem solved.
I am in korea and have been to china. I hate the blatant and arrogant anti- japanese and american sentiment that should have been dropped years ago. the usa is not attacking germany for it’s nazi past!! Nor are we attacking Japan for I’ts pearl harbor attack on us. I read a book the sailor tristan jones wrote and he said “i thought this attitude had dropped years ago. It’s sad to see some people still feel tensions from the past.” or something to that effect about a german sailor during WWII that he had met.
bottom line: japan has appologised for the past that america and the rest of the world have forgiven years ago. japan has converted to pacifist ways.
Korea currently is in turmoil with north korea, china, and the USA and continues to spread it’s anti japanese propaganda to all corners of its country. korea will not choose to be at peace with the world and japan like the rest of us. our wounds have healed but korea continues to put salt in it every year by throwing bombs at the japanese embassey and holding its famous protests. Korea has always been a nationalist hotheaded society and that is fact to anyone who has gone to seoul.
Korean students have told me that it is being let go by the younger generation and hopefully korea will be at peace like th rest of us. the past is the past. focus on issues that aren’t steeped in past conflicts that have no bearing on events now. it opnly does if you make it.
by the way, a guy in pajamas said “The Chinese and Koreans want something from Japan, and they are trying to shame the Japanese into giving it to them.” is it the extremely obvious fact china and korea are developing but japan is the most advanced country i have ever seen that has the second highest GDP to the USA and that korea and china want to develop and get the same respect as japan. I understand but this aggressive scheme to get japan down as revenge for WWII is making me sick. i can’t stand all this nationalism. enough is enough!!!
Nicely put, err, Express, and I’m with you all the way on the whole “let’s get over WW II” thing and all, but there are just a few things I’d like to say. I understand that many Koreans are “nationalist” and “hot-headed” and being a moderate person, I do not reflect the same feelings of my culture. However, I still don’t think that we should automatically put China and Korea down AS A WHOLE mainly because that’s doing exactly the same thing they’re doing…they’re trying to put down Japan, not necessarily over their nationality, but over their horrific past. Even I, a more liberal moderate, still know that Japan was just as bad, if not worse, than Nazi Germany during World War II. They had the same fascist idealistic tendencies, same racial superior agenda, same illusioned glory thinking of rebuilding past empires to greatness. The only difference is that one committed evil in the west, the other in the east. Also, whilst the Jewish community has received a Holocaust museum, several thousand movies and documentaries on the Holocaust, public memorials, compensations, global recognition of the Nazi atrocities, and even personal regret and remorse from the German peoples, the Korean/Chinese have received little more than compensations and apology in contrast. This is partially why I understand, though I do feel that the country my parent’s came from can get a bit too nationalistic, why many older generation Koreans feel the way they do today, though the anti-Japanese hatred is starting to fade away with the younger generations like you said. Does this mean that they are wrong to have their own feelings at least? I for one hold no grudge or hatred for any Japanese man/woman/child. Hell, I’d actually want to meet a Japanese person as a friend in the future. Though I do not hate anybody, I still do have knowledge of what occurred, and have sympathy for both the Koreans/Chinese, and the Japanese people (who suffered under the fascist government of Tojo), and it makes me sad whenever I hear about another argument or dispute that has broken out between Japan/Korea just because some stupid politician decided to run his mouth without choosing his words carefully. As the new century begins, hopefully the more moderate people will lead the Asian race relations into a field of business as China, Korea and Japan start to grow to be a big force in the economic and business world.
Well, I guess this is off topic but speaking as a Japanese American I gots to say that I have found Koreans and Chinese pretty racist towards me. I mean right from the get go. I can’t say I blame them because my ancestors did some awful things, but hey I didn’t do anything to them, or their ancestors for that matter. But you know what that does? It makes me racist right back. I think that’s human nature, and an example of what’s going on in Japan. When you see China burning the Japanese flag at soccer matches and mouthing off, well we ain’t gonna take that sh!t. Imagine if Japan did that…would the Koreans and Chinese just let that slide?
Don’t get me wrong, I think editing textbooks is wrong, I think Koizumi visiting Yasukuni is wrong, I think the guy writing these anti Korean manga is wrong. Japan does have a superiority complex regarding Asia when in fact it’s roots, language, and people originated from Asia. Hell, even the way the royal families were buried is similar to the way Koreans buried their own.
But I treat people according to the golden rule and unfortunately I’m not big enough to let that stuff slide. Maybe there are some cool Koreans and Chinese but the few I’ve met have soured me on the whole lot and I don’t want anything to do with either of them. Did I start out that way? No, but I will say I have become that way.