‘Winter Sonata’ symbolic meaning of Hallyu
‘Itaewon Class’ · ‘Crash Landing on You’ · ‘Strange Lawyer Woo Young-woo’ tops Netflix in Japan
There is a joke that says, ‘In Japan, even rock, paper, paper, scissors must not lose’, but is there a sentence that better expresses the relationship between the two countries? It is a close but distant country, and the history of the Imjin War, the comfort women and forced labor during the Japanese colonial period, etc., is still a sensitive issue between Korea and Japan.
Historically and socially, both countries have uncomfortable feelings for each other, but since 2000, they have been flexible in their acceptance of each other’s popular culture. In particular, Japan is no exception to the influence that Korean content is exerting around the world today. Western countries have been enthusiastic about Korean content on global platforms since the late 2010s, but Japan has been savoring the ‘Korean Wave’ since the 2000s.
In retrospect, the Korean Wave was reacted earlier in China than in Japan. In 1992, diplomatic relations between Korea and China were established, and each other’s culture opened up, and Korean dance groups such as HOT, NRG, and Clone received a lot of love. It was in the early 2000s that I became interested in Korean pop culture in Japan. When the Korean movie ‘Shiri’ was released in Japan in 2000, it ranked first at the box office and recorded an income of 1.8 billion yen.
ⓒIn 2001, BoA entered the Japanese market and sold 1 million copies in 2002 with ‘Listen to my heart’, and became the first Korean to rank No. BoA also appeared in NHK’s ‘Red and White Gahapjeon’, Japan’s biggest music festival at the end of that year, for the sixth consecutive year, starting with her first appearance. In addition, 7 albums were ranked number one on the Oricon Weekly Chart in a row, and they set dazzling records such as winning the Gold Award at the ‘Japan Record Awards’ for 3 consecutive years, and surpassing 10 million album sales in Japan.
The full-fledged Korean wave boom was catalyzed by ‘Winter Sonata’, which aired on NHK-BS2 in 2003. As word of mouth went on, the ratings skyrocketed as the episodes went on, and it became popular with middle-aged housewives in their 30s and 40s. In particular, Bae Yong-joon was called ‘Yonsama’ and became an icon leading the Korean Wave. Choi Ji-woo and Park Yong-ha also became stars in Japan at once.
The economic ripple effect of ‘Winter Sonata’ was also great. In Japan, tourism revenue of KRW 570.5 billion (Japan’s First Research Institute for Life Economy), production inducement of KRW 1.190.6 trillion, and added value of KRW 579.1 billion were created.
The reason ‘Winter Sonata’ is symbolic when talking about Hallyu is because it played a decisive role in the cultural relationship between Japan and Korea, and has expanded into daily life such as Korean language studies, fan meeting tours, and tourism. In particular, it did not stop with a one-time popularity, but continued the Korean Wave centered on one drama for a long time. Pop culture experts from both countries have no disagreement that the Korean Wave in Japan today would not exist without ‘Winter Sonata’. After ‘Winter Sonata’, Korean dramas such as ‘Beautiful Days’, ‘All In’ and ‘Stairway to Heaven’ have steadily gained popularity.
Hallyu, which was formed through Korean dramas, has been reorganized around K-pop since the mid-2000s. In 2009, TVXQ entered Japan with a localization strategy following BoA’s example, and performed at the Tokyo Dome for the first time in a Korean group. Since then, girl groups such as Girls’ Generation and Kara have warmed up the archipelago. The Japanese were enthusiastic about the excellent singing skills and performances of Korean singers, as well as the possibility of multiplayer such as actors, models, and MCs. In the case of Girls’ Generation and KARA, the strategy for targeting girls worked well. At that time, there were girl groups such as Morning Musume and AKB48 in the Japanese music industry, but male fans were the main consumers. ‘Idol of Girls’ was a situation in which a girl group was absent after Speed, which was active in the 1990s, so Girls’ Generation and KARA took the place.
ⓒAround 2017, TWICE and BTS became the center and became a leader in the Korean Wave. The younger consumers, which have expanded since the time of TVXQ, began to accept the Korean Wave as a form of cultural acceptance, and enjoyed it in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle.
Currently, through the global platform Netflix, not only K-Pop but also dramas are again receiving enthusiastic support from Japanese fans. On the 4th, Japanese Netflix ranked No. 1 for ‘Young-Woo Woo, Strange Lawyer’, 2nd for ‘Itaewon Class’, 3rd for ‘Wedding’, 4th for ‘Beautiful Man’, 5th for ‘Black Bride’, 6th for ‘Crash Landing on You’. to be. Six works in the top 10 are Korean dramas, and their names were ranked in order from 1st to 6th.
In particular, in the case of ‘Crash Landing on You’ and ‘Itaewon Class’, two years have passed since they ended, but they are still ranked at the top. In the case of ‘Itaewon Class’, after TV Asahi’s recent remake, it is running backwards again.
Although Hallyu has been loved in Japan for a long time, it is not without difficulties. In 2005, Korea-Japan relations deteriorated due to the distortion of Dokdo sovereignty and history textbooks. At that time, the tension turned around when the popular culture Hallyu received unprecedented attention. In 2010, there was an anti-Korean wave movement centered on the net right wing (right wing netizens with a nationalistic tendency). They began to blatantly contain Korea, and in 2011, when Fuji TV, a right-wing broadcaster, mainly organized Korean dramas, protests were also held.
In 2012, South Korea-Japan relations cooled down when former President Lee Myung-bak demanded an apology from the Japanese emperor and visited Dokdo. The Japanese terrestrial broadcaster NHK, which aired ‘Winter Sonata’, stopped programming Korean dramas. Actress Kim Tae-hee suffered expulsion protests in the past for stating “Dokdo is Korean territory” at a Dokdo event in Switzerland with her brother Lee Wan in 2005. Lee Seung-cheol was denied entry for visiting Dokdo, and Girls’ Generation and KARA were notified of the cancellation of their scheduled appearances in Japan’s NHK ‘Red and White Singers’. Korean singers were not invited to ‘Red and White Singing Contest’ for 5 consecutive years, and Twice carefully opened up in 2018.
TWICE’s name was added to the list of performers again with ‘Red and White Singing Battle’, but even at that time, the atmosphere of hatred was not serious. Conflict between the two countries has also affected politics and society after the South Korean Supreme Court ruling ordered Japanese company Shinil Cheol Steel to compensate for damages to victims of conscription.
In 2019, the Japanese government announced that it would tighten export regulations for three items, including semiconductor materials, and excluded Korea from the white list of countries with preferential export procedures. This was interpreted as a measure of retaliation against the Korean Supreme Court’s ruling on compensation for conscripted victims, and the anti-Japanese atmosphere in Korea and anti-Korea atmosphere was re-established in Japan.
In 2012 and 2019, the unresolved past history issue was used as a political tool, but there was a difference. In 2012, if they physically showed their feelings for Korea, in 2019, the people who consumed the Korean wave and hatred were divided and realized at the same time. Although hatred against Korea was heightened, the Korean town of Shin-Okubo did not reduce the number of Japanese visitors, and Japanese broadcasters broadcast the appearance of singers leading the third Hallyu boom, such as BTS and Twice.
In 2018, the far right of Japan took issue with the Liberation Day T-shirt worn by BTS member Jimin in the past. At that time, their appearance on Japanese music shows was canceled, but soon in 2019, BTS successfully completed a global fan meeting, a Tokyo Dome concert, and pop-up stores in three cities in Japan: Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka.
Mika, a Japanese who likes Korean dramas and Gold Child, said, “Political issues and the culture I like are two separate issues. People around you may not be interested, but honestly, no one hates K-Pop. Why are Korean dramas like that in Japan? There are more opinions about whether or not I can’t. It’s not that I was interested in Korea and liked the singer, but it’s a case where I became interested in Korea after liking a singer, so I don’t really care.”
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