Japan's showbiz fans look to S Korea

By Jamie Miyazaki in Tokyo South Korean actor Yon-sama has taken Japan by storm Back in 1999, American cult rocker Tom Waits boasted about being "Big in Japan" in his song of the same name. He might be surprised to know that he is now being toppled by some competitors from a country a lot closer to home - South Korea. Korean entertainers are now among the biggest celebrities in the Land of the Rising Sun. Their new-found popularity is all the more surprising considering the historical issues that have coloured relations between the two countries. Japan's brutal colonial rule over the Korean peninsula during the first half of the 20th Century left many Koreans distrustful of their larger neighbour. Yon-sama is more popular than me Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi, referring to the popular South Korean actor It was only in 1998 that South Korea's government began to relax a ban on distributing and selling Japanese pop music and films. And while ethnic Koreans make up the largest minority in Japan, they have often faced discrimination and been treated as second-class citizens. But these attitudes are changing, helped no doubt by the 2002 jointly-hosted World Cup, when Korea was firmly in Japan's media spotlight. Korean pop star BoA now tops the Japanese charts and Brotherhood, a Korean war movie, took the Japanese box office by storm this summer. But much of the current boom has been fuelled by a Korean soap-opera called A Winter Sonata, and its leading man Bae Yong-joon, or Yon-sama as he is affectionately known in Japan. So popular is Yon-sama that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi recently joked, "Yon-sama is more popular than me." Korean idol Yon-sama's arrival in Japan at the end of November was greeted with the kind of hysteria normally reserved for Hollywood A-list celebrities. At a photography exhibition about Yon-sama in Tokyo, Yuko Nagama - one of the Korean actor's legion of middle-aged female fans - told the BBC News website what it was that made the man so popular. "He's very gentlemanly and refined, he's not like young Japanese men these days. Yon-sama reminds me of the way men were 30 or 40 years ago," she said. Savvy Japanese entrepreneurs and entertainers have been quick to catch on to the new cultural shift. The critically acclaimed Japanese actor, director and comedian "Beat" Takeshi played a Korean immigrant in his latest film Blood and Bones. Many fans travelled long distances to a recent Yon-sama exhibition And the Korea infatuation has not just had an impact on television and cinema. Japanese travel agents are offering "Winter Sonata" trips to Korea, while dating agencies have even sprung up to satisfy Japanese women's appetites for Korean men in Yon-sama's wake. "Of course I don't think all Korean men are like Yon-sama, but still..." Mrs Nakagama mused as she entered the photography exhibition for the fourth time that week. She had come all the way to Tokyo from Hokkaido, in the north of Japan, to see pictures of her idol. The media storm is also having another effect. Many Japanese have begun to learn Korean - including Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, a celebrity who even launched a TV series of his exploits in South Korea. Cultural shift This is not the first time, though, that Japan has taken a cultural interest in its smaller and often overlooked neighbour. A similar wave of interest swept the country during the 1988 Seoul Olympics. But this time, part of the new Korea-mania is being driven by a general change in Japanese attitudes toward Asia, Chung Daekyun, a Korean professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, told the BBC. "I think Japanese people's sense of goodwill to Koreans and their readiness to applaud Koreans has risen somewhat," he said. But while showbiz may sell Korea to the Japanese, relations on a political level remain muddied by history. Territorial disputes over islands, the continued lack of voting rights for Korean-Japanese and accusations of Japanese textbooks whitewashing the behaviour of Japanese troops during World War II all complicate the picture. The jointly hosted 2002 World Cup improved S Korea-Japan relations "In the short term, I don't think [the rise in popularity of Korean actors and pop stars] has any influence on issues such as textbooks," said Professor Chung. "But I think Koreans realize that because of the boom this time, Japanese have a more positive view of Korea," he added. "And perhaps this will have the effect of easing the sense of rivalry between the two." There is still some way to go, as exemplified by the comments made by one Japanese woman at the Yon-sama photography exhibition. "I love Winter Sonata, but when I went to Korea three years ago I got the impression not all Koreans liked Japanese," she said. And even ethnic Korean Japanese are not convinced that Yon-sama alone can change more than half a century of discrimination. "I think awareness about South Korea as a country has changed [but] awareness about Korean Japanese hasn't. Discrimination exists even now," said Kim Kwang-Ja, a 57-year-old ethnic Korean Japanese from western Japan. Korea's pop stars and actors still have some way to go before they can truly be rid of the ghosts of the past that continue to haunt relations between the two neighbours. ---------------------------------------------------- 위의 글은 영문 원본 이구요 야후에서 친절하게도 번역을 해서 올려 주셨네요...^ _ ^ --------------------------------------------------- 야후에 실린 글.. 서구 언론매체들이 최근 일본에서 일고 있는 이른바 한류 열풍에 대해 잇따라 보도하고 있습니다. 영국의 국영방송 BBC는 일본 음반 시장을 석권한 가수 보아와 극장가를 강타한 한국 영화들을 열거하고 한국 열기에 기름을 부은 것은 TV 드라마 ''겨울 연가''와 그 주인공인 ''욘사마'' 배용준이라고 소개했습니다. 파이낸셜 타임스는 배용준이 일본을 방문했을 때 5천명의 여성 팬이 몰려나와 ''욘사마''를 연호한 사실을 전하면서 한류는 한국 문화의 외국 진출 뿐만 아니라 일본과 중국, 대만 등 아시아인들의 한국 방문 효과도 낳고 있다고 분석했습니다. 미국의 전국지 USA 투데이도 일본의 ''욘사마'' 열풍을 소개하면서 한류 현상은 아픈 기억이 더 많은 한일 양국 관계가 바뀌고 있는 신호라고 풀이했습니다 --------------------------------------------------- 알고 있는 일본인 친구에게 물어본 결과, 젊은 일본인은 별로 대단하게 생각을 하지 않는것 같고, 약간 나이가 든 일본인 여자들이 확실히 더 좋아 하는것 같아요. 참, 이 BBC판 뉴스는 신랑이 찾아 주었는데, 제가 한 마디 했어요. 이렇게 잘생긴 한국 남자들 많은데, 괜히 영국인 남자랑 결혼 했다고.....