JAPANESE HOLD ANTI-KOREAN WAVE PROTEST
The sacking of Japanese actor Sousuke Takaoka by his agency fueled an anti-Korean wave street demonstration in Tokyo with hundreds of Japanese airing their sentiments against the broadcast of Korean dramas and other forms of Korean entertainment on TV.
The Japanese held their protest in front of the headquarters of Fuji TV, Japan’s No. 1 TV station, located in Odaiba, Tokyo. They waved Japanese flags and held placards that contain statements like “Give us Japanese TV.” They also sang the Japanese national anthem.
The protest targeted Fuji TV, which has been accused of airing more Korean content than any other Japanese TV station including numerous Korean dramas such as “You’re Beautiful,” “King of Baking, Kim Tak Goo,” “Coffee Prince,” and “Goong.”
The protesters are planning to hold more demonstrations in the following weeks.
The Korean wave has become popular in Japan. Korean artists such as Bae Yong Joon and Choi Ji Woo have gained a cult following in Japan ever since their drama “Winter Sonata” swept Japan in 2003. K-pop groups including Girls Generation and KARA have also successfully penetrated the Japanese music market.
Last month, Sousuke tweeted his gripes about the proliferation of Korean dramas on Fuji TV, accusing the station of being a pro-Korean TV station. He said that the dominance of Korean content on Japanese TV is like “brainwashing.” Days after his tweets, he was fired by Stardust Promotion, his Japanese agency.
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MOREANTI-HALLYU NETIZENS PLAN TO BOYCOTT FUJITV
Following Japanese actor Sousuke Takaoka’s controversial anti-Hallyu comments last week, hostility towards the proliferation of Korean pop culture has been growing in Japan.
On July 23rd, Takaoka wrote on his Twitter account that, “I don’t really watch channel 8 (Fuji TV) anymore. It sometimes makes me wonder if it’s a Korean channel. Japanese people want traditional Japanese programs.” Later he added, “It feels like Korean programs brainwash you, and it really makes me feel bad. Broadcasters need to realize its negative effect,” which resulted in him losing his contract with his management agency on July 28th.
This prompted the largely underground anti-Hallyu netizens in Japan to voice their support for Takaoka, and organize a group boycott on Fuji TV. They are organizing an event on August 8th to suggest tuning out of Fuji TV during the whole day to bring massive drops to their TV ratings. Fuji TV, the leading Japanese channel with the most Korean TV shows on, is shown on channel eight, which is why they picked August 8th.
Netziens are screaming, “No more Hallyu!” “Let’s show the power of Twitterians,” “Our goal is to make 0% TV ratings,” and “Japan is going through a tough period, and there’s no need to watch a broadcaster that supports other countries.”
The anti-hallyu sentiment amongst a portion of the population seems to be increasing recently as more and more Kdramas are shown. Many Kpop groups have also debuted in Japan and even their rookie groups can go on prestigious music programs that usually invites more established acts in Japan. Some netizens resent how much the Korean agencies have increasingly pushed their talents by ‘buying’ slots in these programs. They question that the amount of broadcasting time do not reflect the actual interest in Hallyu since many of the Korean dramas and variety shows with Korean singers/actors receive comparably worse ratings. Comparing different broadcasting stations they found FujiTV to broadcast the highest number of hours of Korean dramas in a month period (40 hrs).
aspop.info/kpop/anti-hallyu-netizens-plan-to-bo...I'm a bit shocked by all this. I mean of course this is stupid as hell. Channels broadcast whatever has the best ratings and if K-pop sells it just shows that it's outrageously popular in Japan. If something sells you can't do shit to stop it. But in a way I can also sympathize with the Japanese. It was one thing with THSK who worked very hard to get where there're at, but it's a very different story with some rookie bands who barely made their début in Korea but could just ride the wave and gain more coverage than Japanese artists who worked hard for it.