The following article on the rise of racist mainstream publishing in Japan comes from the center left blog Litera. This blog is funded by print publishers and features perspectives from recently published books.

“Japan’s Koreaphobia is Japan’s Koreanization: Conservative Sankei Editor Criticizes the Koreaphobia Wave by Enjo Toru” (July 10, 2014)

Koreaphobia is in. Bookstores are filled with Koreaphobic books arguing how terrible a country Korea is, and many of them have become best sellers. Magazines and evening tabloids publish attacks on Korea in almost every issue. What’s written is truly awful. The books are filled with statements like "lying comes as easy to a Korean as breathing" and "Korea’s one of the biggest exporters of whores. They’ve got tens of thousands of them in the U.S. and Japan.“ In the magazines and evening tabloids, a panicked tone characterizes reports on intensifying anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea: "Korea’s Anti-Japanese Rampage Going Strong”; “First Takeshima, Next Tsushima.”

The periodicals are relentlessly abusive, calling South Korean President Park Geun-hye incompetent and accusing her of “old biddy diplomacy." The articles portray Korea as monolithically anti-Japanese and unwilling to engage in dialogue. They fill readers with the fear that one day it will not be Takeshima that the Koreans are coming for, but Japan itself.

In the midst of this all, one unlikely person is criticizing Japan’s Koreaphobia. He is Kuroda Katsuhiro, a Seoul-based editor for the Sankei Shinbun newspaper. Having reported on the Korean problem [sic] for three decades, Kuroda is one of the most prominent conservative Korea watchers. Here’s what he had to say this February in the Weekly Chosun, a publication of the Chosun Ilbo, Korea’s biggest conservative daily:

"It’s now popular in Japan to use anything you dislike to bash Korea. Bestseller after bestseller is being written about the negative parts of the country alone. You have lots of stuff like, ‘Korea is a country of whoring and a rapist’s paradise,’ 'their country’s overflowing with food that’s unsafe to eat,’ 'most of the men don’t wash their hands when they use the bathroom,’ 'the kids’ suicides are skyrocketing because of the hellish extracurriculars,’ and 'Samsung’s in trouble.’ I could go on…

"The Koreans have long said that Japan’s failure is Korea’s delight, but now if anything it’s Japan that’s reveling in Korean failure. I’ve joked about this 'Koreanization’ of Japan, but it’s been difficult for me to watch the discourse in Japan deteriorate.”

This anguish over Korephobia seems strange coming from someone so consistently critical of anti-Japanese nationalism in Korea, but from Kuroda’s perspective it’s Japan that has changed.
“I went back to Japan five times around New Year’s to do some lectures, seminars, and TV appearances. The anti-Korean hatred was shocking. In Korea I get called a typical far-right Japanese commentator and a rant machine. But now when I’m in Japan telling people about real Korean society and Koreans, about the anti-Japanese sentiment there, I get criticized as too soft, insufficiently critical, a once-was Korea booster, or a Korean spy against Japan.”

In other words, Japan has become as peculiar as Korea once was.

Japanese reports of an intensifying anti-Japanese atmosphere in Korea apparently have a questionable basis. Kuroda appeared on an episode of TV Asahi’s [monthly special] Live 'Til Morning entitled "Fiery Debate (Japanese-Korean Relations): What to Do about Japan Bashing and Korephobia?!,“ which was broadcast May 30th of this year:

"As someone who’s lived in Korea for over thirty years, I can say that the average person is becoming less and less anti-Japanese. You won’t get harassed for speaking Japanese. Everyone loves Japanese things, there’s a line outside bookstores when the newest Haruki Murakami title comes out, and most Koreans feel a sense of connection with Japan in their everyday lives…Japan’s Koreaphobic sentiment is much more visible, but since only the anti-Japanese news and information get through, that’s what people base their image on.”

Some think that Japan’s rising hatred of Korea exists because of anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea, but the average Korean citizen seems indifferent. A Seoul-based journalist for another nationally distributed paper is reported as saying that, “Unlike in Japan, Korea’s bestseller rankings are free of books dedicated to hating on their neighbor. The fact is that a minority of Korean politicians and media outlets engage in anti-Japanese posturing, which the Japanese media blows out of proportion to make people hate or oppose Korea.”

According to a publishing-industry source, Japanese media outlets and publishers are so gung-ho about the Koreaphobia movement because, to put it flatly, “Korephobia sells." A former Seoul-based correspondent for Jiji Communciations, Murotani Katsumi, published A Theory of Korean Idiocy. The book sold over 200,000 copies within the first two months.  A Korean-Authored Theory of Korean Embarrassments, purportedly written by an anoymous Korean dentist, sold more than 100,000 copies. Magazines sales are said to jump 20% when Koreaphobic articles are featured.

In the words of an insider, "They’re one of the few things that will sell in this sluggish publishing market. What the books say is one of publishers’ last concerns, which is easy enough to see when same authors are publishing what’s essentially same book multiple times. You have your rehashes of the 2000s-era Hating the Korean Wave, and a lot of off-the-wall consipiracy theories.”

It would be highly ironic if a few extreme Koreaphobes and shrewd publishers brought about Kuroda’s Koreanization of Japan. 

Incidentally, Kuroda has proposed that Japan should attempt to utilize Korea for its own benefit. To do so, he suggests engaging in levelheaded, pragmatic diplomacy while resisting Koreaphobic or anti-Korean sentiment.

“Anti-Korean netizens often remark on how Korea annoys them and they wish that Japan could pick and move somewhere else. I get the same sort of comments when I’m on television. I respond to those by saying that, well, we can’t move away from Korea. Why not take the chance to consider what Korea can do for us, all the pros and cons included, then act upon that?”

If this sort of level-headed opinion gets one called a Korean spy, discourse in Japan may be in trouble.

END

Translator’s Notes

+ In this essay, I’ve translated the word 韓嫌 as Koreaphobic, patterning it after words like homophobic and Islamophic. The awkward Korea-hating would be more etmologically faithful to the Japanese, but from a social standpoint Koreaphobic is more accurate. Korea-hating lacks “thingness.” It sounds like the description of a diffuse set of juvenile but ultimately harmless attitudes, whereas Koreaphobe hints at the often organized genocidal rage that characterizes large swaths of the internet right in Japan.

+ The original Japanese text is visible here.

+ The author’s name is a humorous pseudonym to the effect of Flameoir Ensouz. This is likely a self-protective measure against doxxing.

+ I don’t personally endorse everything in this article.