Anti-Korean sentiment in Japan refers to opposition, hostility, hatred, distrust, fear, and general dislike of Korean people or culture in Japan. Relations between Japan and Korea can date back to nearly two millennia, mostly defined through cultural exchanges and diplomatic trade. However, major events involving military aggression and political disputes play a key factor in harboring negative sentiment.[1] Much of the current anti-Korean sentiment stems from conservative politicians and far-right groups.
Relations between ancient Japan and Korea date back to at least the 4th century, according to historical records of ancient China, Japan, and Korea. According to the Book of Sui, Silla and Baekje greatly valued relations with the Kofun-period Wa and the Korean kingdoms made diplomatic efforts to maintain their good standing with the Japanese.[2] The Samguk sagi (Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms) reported that Baekje and Silla sent their princes as hostages to the Yamato court in exchange for military support to continue their military campaigns; King Asin of Baekje sent his son (Jeonji) in 397,[3] and King Silseong of Silla sent his son Misaheun in 402.[4]Hogong, from Japan, helped to found Silla.[5] According to the Nihon Shoki, Silla was invaded by an army from Wa (Japan) in the third century.[6] In Korea, inscriptions on the Gwanggaeto Stele state that the king of Goguryeo assisted Silla when it was invaded by the Wa, and punished Baekje for allying with the Wa. The stela also records Wa excursions in the early 5th century.[7]
During the Mongol conquests of the 13th and 14th centuries, the Goryeo dynasty of Korea became a vassal state. Under Mongolian influence, Korean envoys were sent to Japan to declare submission to the Mongols, only to be rejected.[8][9] In response, the emperor Kublai Khan launched two separate invasions in 1274 and 1281. Although both attempts to conquer Japan failed, anti-Korean sentiment had risen due to the major involvement of Korean troops participating in the invasion.[citation needed]
During the Joseon period, Wokou pirate raids on Korean soil were frequent, which would eventually form the basis of hatred between the two sides. Ultimately in 1592, Japanese samurai armies invaded Korea on the orders of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The Imjin Wars continued until 1598, when the Japanese left, and took with them a number of Korean craftsmen.[citation needed]
During the Meiji Restoration of the late 19th century, Japan underwent Westernization and took opportunities to exploit China, which was unable to defend itself from Western forces. Because Korea acted as part of China's tributary state, Japan went to exert further influence by presenting Korea with the Treaty of Gangwha, forcing Korea to provide extraterritorial rights to Japanese citizens in the country, open three ports—Busan, Incheon, and Wonsan—to Japanese and foreign trade, and establish its independence from China in foreign relations. For the next couple of decades, the Empire of Japan would forcefully remove any foreign influence on Korea to finally annex the country in 1910.[10] Japan maintained control of Korea until the end of World War II in 1945.
During the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, widespread damage occurred in a region with a significant Korean population, and much of the local Japanese overreacted to rumors which spread after the earthquake.[11] Within the aftermath of the event, there was a common perception amongst some groups of Japanese that ethnic Koreans were poisoning wells, eventually setting off a set of killings against Koreans, where Japanese would use the shibboleth of ba bi bu be bo (ばびぶべぼ) to distinguish ethnic Koreans from Japanese, as it was assumed that Koreans would be unable to pronounce the line correctly, and instead pronounce them as [pa,pi,pu,pe,po].[12] All people who failed the test were killed,[citation needed] which caused many ethnic Chinese, also unable to correctly pronounce the shibboleth, to be indiscriminately killed in large numbers. Other shibboleths used were "jū-go-en, go-jū-ssen" (15円 50銭; 15 yen, 50 sen) and "gagigugego" (がぎぐげご), where Japanese people pronounce initial g as [ɡ] and medial g as [ŋ] (such a distinction is dying out in recent years), whereas Koreans pronounce the two sounds as [k] and [ɡ] respectively.[citation needed]
Post-WWII history
Right wing demonstration criticizing South Korea over the Liancourt Rocks dispute in February 2022
In April 2014, several anti-Korean stickers were found posted at 13 locations along the Shikoku Pilgrimage route; the stickers were denounced by a spokesman from the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage Association.[13]
In 2021, a Japanese man set fire to an empty house in a Korean village in Utoro district, Uji. The fire spread to other properties and damaged them. He attributed his actions to his hatred of the Korean people, which was in part sparked by online rhetoric. He was sentenced to four years in prison.[14][15]
North Korea
There is also much concern in Japan regarding North Korea and its nuclear and long-range missile capabilities, as a result of missile tests in 1993, 1998 and 2006 and an underground nuclear test in 2006. There are also controversies regarding North Korean abductions of Japanese, where Japanese citizens were abducted by North Korean agents during the 1970s and 1980s.[16]
Chongryon, the North Korea-affiliated organization for ethnic Koreans in Japan, has continually drawn controversy from the Japanese public.[17]
During the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Japanese and Korean supporters clashed with one another. Both sides were also known to post racist messages against each other on online bulletin boards. There were also disputes regarding how the event was to be hosted, as a result of the rivalry between the two nations.
The Korean Wave, or the exportation of South Korean pop culture, has created some negative feelings among pockets of Japanese society. Many Japanese citizens with conservative views and some right-wingnationalist groups have organized anti-Korean Wave demonstrations via 2channel. On 9 August 2011, more than 2,000 protesters demonstrated in front of Fuji TV's headquarters in Odaiba, Tokyo, against the broadcasting of Korean dramas.[18] Earlier, in July 2011, Japanese former actor Sousuke Takaoka was fired from his agency, Stardust Promotion, for tweeting criticisms against the influx of Korean dramas.[19] The general perception of Koreans on 2channel is negative, with users depicting them as violent, unethical, and irrational people who are a 'threat' to Japan.[20] Users often reference stereotypes of Koreans, such as the use of dogs in Korean cuisine.[21]
The United States Institute of Peace analyzed that the dispute between Japan and South Korea results from anti-Korean xenophobia. According to their analysis, Japan's repeated historical negativism, territorial disputes, and failure of diplomatic agreements are also manifestations of anti-Korean xenophobia. Many Japanese people perceive Koreans to be inferior and untrustworthy.[22]
Kenkan
In Japanese bookstores, Kenkan (嫌韓, "Hatred for [South] Koreans") is recognized as a book genre. On the other hand, while there are no Hyomil (혐일;嫌日;lit.Hatred for Japanese) books in South Korean bookstores, there is a segment for books specifically covering Korea under colonial rule.[23] Kenkan books grew in numbers during 2012, and slowly disappeared after a law countering hate speech was enacted in 2016.[24]
South Korean media have accused Japanese people of continuing to support historical revisionism against Korean victims, apologizing for Chinese victims in the World War II issue of Japanese war crimes.[25][26]
Several South Korean media have criticized that, except for some left-wing socialist political parties (mainly Social Democratic Party and Japanese Communist Party), major Japanese politicians and political parties often have historical revisionist perceptions of the comfort women issue. Fumio Kishida called on the German government to remove the Statue of Peace in Berlin, which has caused considerable controversy in South Korea.[27][28] The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, as well as the Liberal Democratic Party, have also called on the South Korean government to remove the Statue of Peace,[29] with some even suggesting that there was no evidence to indicate that Japanese authorities coerced Korean women into sexual slavery.[30] In 2015, the issue was declared settled by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs after talks between the ministers of foreign affairs on both sides. However, this was overturned in 2017, when Moon Jae-in claimed that the agreement does not settle the issue.[31]
On June 26, 1982, the textbook screening process in Japan came under scrutiny when the media of Japan and its neighboring countries gave extensive coverage to changes required by the Minister of Education. Experts from the ministry sought to soften textbook references to Japanese aggression before and during World War II. The Japanese invasion of China in 1937, for example, was modified to "advance". Passages describing the fall of Nanking justified the Japanese atrocities by describing the acts as a result of Chinese provocations. Pressure from China successfully led the Ministry of Education to adopt a new authorization criterion - the "Neighboring Country Clause" (近隣諸国条項) - stating: "textbooks ought to show understanding and seek international harmony in their treatment of modern and contemporary historical events involving neighboring Asian countries."[32]
In 2006, Japanese textbooks stated that the Liancourt Rocks is Japanese territory. This island is disputed territory claimed by both Japan and South Korea. The head of the South Korean Ministry of Education, Kim Shin-il, sent a letter of protest to Bunmei Ibuki, the Minister of Education, on May 9, 2007.[33] In a speech marking the 88th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun called for Japan to correct its school textbooks on controversial topics ranging from "inhumane rape of comfort women" to "the Korean ownership of the Liancourt Rocks".[34] The Liberal Democratic Party, notably the Shinzo Abe administration, has been criticized for historical revisionism tendencies.[35] The Japanese Society for Historical Studies has criticized the LDP's intervention against textbook writers, and its ban on several words and phrases such as "comfort women".[36][37]
Some right-wing groups in Japan today have targeted ethnic Koreans living within Japan. One such group, known as Zaitokukai, is organized by members on the internet and has led street demonstrations against Korean schools.[41]
On March 27, 2010, on the centennial of Japan–Korean annexation, Yukio Edano, then Japanese Minister of State for Government Revitalization, stated that "The invasion and colonization and China and Korea were historically inevitable... since China and Korea could not modernize themselves". Yukio Edano is known as a liberal politician in Japan.[42]
In the South Korean media, most Japanese people and almost all major Japanese media criticize the view of South Korean politics for being biased and for portraying or loathing South Korean liberals in a negative way.[43][44][a] Korean media claims that, the Asahi Shimbun, known in Japan as a Japanese liberal media outlet, reports on the South Korean liberal Moon Jae-in government using biased and insulting expressions.[45][46]
↑ Most South Korean liberals take the view that the Japanese government should provide proper individual compensation for the South Korean victims of Japanese war crimes. In contrast, many Japanese take the view that the compensation issue has already been closed due to the Treaty on Basic Relations Between Japan and the Republic of Korea. This is an element of the Japan-Korea conflict.
↑ Chinese History Record Book of Sui, Vol. 81, Liezhuan 46: 隋書 東夷伝 第81巻列伝46: 新羅、百濟皆以倭為大國，多珍物，並敬仰之，恆通使往來 "Silla and Baekje both take Wa to be a great country, with many rare and precious things; also [Silla and Baekje] respect and look up to them, and regularly send embassies there." "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2004-12-21. Retrieved 2006-04-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
↑ Korean History Record Samguk sagi: 三國史記 新羅本紀: 元年 三月 與倭國通好 以奈勿王子未斯欣爲質
↑ Mohan, Pankaj N (2004). "Rescuing a Stone from Nationalism: A Fresh Look at the Kwanggaeto Stele of Koguryo". Journal of Inner and East Asian Studies. 1: 89–115.
↑ 元寇 (in Japanese). Japan Knowledge. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
↑ Weiner, Michael A. (1989). The origins of the Korean community in Japan, 1910–1923. Manchester: Manchester University Press. pp.164–188. ISBN978-0-7190-2987-5.
↑ Cybriwsky, Roman (1991). Tokyo: The Changing Profile of an Urban Giant. London: Belhaven Press. p.81. ISBN978-1-85293-054-7.
↑ "How to Address the Racism at the Heart of Japan-South Korea Tensions". United States Institute of Peace. 17 January 2023. Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. Retrieved 2 May 2023. Anti-Korean racism is at the heart of historic and unresolved tensions between Japan and South Korea. It will be near impossible to resolve disputes like the comfort women issue without addressing this racism. This is because the difficulty in reaching a consensus on the Japanese side often derives from the underlying tendency among many Japanese to view Koreans as "inferior" and "untrustworthy." U.S. actors, including officials, businesses and academics, should understand the consequences of the important role they have played in perpetuating such prejudice and help right this wrong. ... We tend to think of Korean-Japanese tensions in terms of topic areas, such as Japan's recurring historical denialism, the territorial dispute and the failure of diplomatic arrangements. But these tensions are largely manifestations of racism, not the cause of it, and they will persist as long as racism itself remains unaddressed.
↑ 기시다, 독일 총리에 소녀상 철거 요청…"반응 안 좋아"(종합2보)[Kishida called on the German Chancellor to remove the Statue of Peace... Kishida said, ""[German Chancellor] did not respond well."]. 연합뉴스. 11 May 2022.
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