Japanese Anti-Hallyu Protests Continue

MBC’s “Current Events Magazine 2580” had a press release about the anti-hallyu (Anti-Korean Wave) protests that appear to be increasing.

On the episode that featured the anti-hallyu protests that was broadcast on August 21^st, K-Pop’s popularity and also its anti-movement were shown. The episode showed many protestors saying extremely critical things about Korean celebrities.

One protestor was shown with a microphone saying, “Don’t force hallyu on us Fuji TV, I don’t want to watch Korean dramas.” Other protestors were shown screaming “Hurrah to the Japanese Emperor,” also people were saying “Amongst the people passing by we can even see the face of some Josen-jin.” (Josen-jin is a derogatory word that the Japanese use to describe Koreans.)

Also, some protestors were screaming insults at celebrities, “Let’s get rid of the Cockroaches SNSD, KARA, and DBSK. Do you think ‘Winter Sonata’ is fun? Choi Ji Woo is a thirty year old ajumma. Does it make sense that an ajumma is wearing a school uniform?”

Korean viewers have commented, “Neo Japanese Nationalists are using anti-hallyu in order to reach towards the Dokdo controversy. I’m at a loss of words,” “their toothless criticism is low-class,” “I can’t believe they actually called celebrities cockroaches.

One Japanese professor on the show had stated, “I believe that the reason these protests are occurring is because the neo Japanese nationalists unhappy about Japan are just targeting hallyu. For Korea the best way to proceed is to ignore the protests.”