Japan and Korea: how a turbulent history is becoming strangely close yet PSY catches no break

I figure alot of people are probably on a Korea kick right now, which when I think about it doesn't seem too surprising. From my perspective it almost felt inevitable, although it seems to have occurred in an unexpected manor. To be honest America has a weird influence on culture, and reacts quite interestingly. Skipping the long story, let's start with how after the post WWII conflict and we helped to rebuild Japan, they took a shining to our culture. A nation raised on the warrior class (there's a history lesson here, I'll avoid it) found its identify conflicted as it continued trying to modernize as much as possible, and a few issues eventually left it to seek out its own identity in this modern world, obviously influenced by both America and its own past. Jump some decades later and you find the Japanese instead being the influence on American culture, challenging our craftsmanship, our production, our cuisine, our culture, and our entertainment. Funny how culture works that way around here.

Why am I talking about Japan when I'm supposed to be talking about (South) Korea? Well, there's a reason. And it's due to an article on Kotaku I read the other day.

But before I get to the article at hand, I want to start out with a different article, at the BBC.

To summarize, while Gangnam Style is hitting it big here in America (and around the world for that matter), Korean pop culture has already been big in Japan for a while. Korean music, drama, and food have all been making a leap across the sea to Japan and making it big. The video at the BBC explains the phenomenon, but there's a bit more. While I am no substitute for someone living in Japan first hand, I can say my background provides for good perspective on the matter.

Again, foregoing the longer explanation, the simpler explanation deals with "otaku". The simplest translation would be 'nerd' or 'obsessor'. In America, primarily in the Japanese Anime fandom, the term is seen as a badge of honor, something that identifies them as a true fan of Japanese Anime culture. However, in Japan, the term is quite more complex. The wiki link included does a good job describing the complexities of the word's usage, but there are other aspects not considered. In relation to the BBC article are two points I'd like to point out. First is in relation to 'stars', which are referred to in Japans case as 'idols'. Essentially, there are Otaku in many genres and fields, and can get as specific as being a highly devoted fan to an individual actor or singer (or both). With this, there are certain ideals as to how the idol is to behave (mannerisms, purity, chastity, appearance, etc.) and certain words created to describe these traits. 'Tsundere' and 'moe' are two terms that come to mind right now, but there's more that I am not familiar with. Relate this to say a Beiberite, or whatever they're called, but on a more vocal level any time that he stepped 'out of character'. With new idols appearing alot in Japan, there's a push to change their tastes and Korean pop culture has taken cues from Japan's idol culture, which allowed for this cultural gap to be bridged.

I also have some desire to address the commentary about "wishing they were Korean", but I feel that it's inappropriate, even with having some understanding of the viewpoint here. I think perhaps that's a better question for everyone to ask themselves than to postulate on.

So, continuing on to the Kotaku article, it would seem that the Korean shine may be fading on Japan.

I have a turbulent love/hate for Gawker. Their tech blog Gizmodo has great tech and sciencey news blogs, but my lord avoid it when there's a hint of Apple news or rumors in the air. They need to surgically remove their lips from Steve Jobs rear with him being six feet under. Regardless though Kotaku has still been great. Their primary focus is on video game news but their secondary focus provides a great insight on Japanese pop culture and anime, with a much better inside view than I have exposure to regularly (with writers that live in Japan providing articles).

The article does a perfect job to summarize every reason I could imagine possible as to why PSY didn't make it big in Japan like he did across the rest of the world. He's quite the opposite of say Korean pop star Rain

 both before

 and after Ninja Assassin

America is perhaps more receptive of their stars being anything from fit and pretty to portly and round, white or black (maybe not so many other colors in between just yet though), average, or anything else. Japan though expects their idols to be a certain way, a certain chisel. Perhaps you could say they expect the entertainers standing before them to be carved from the same marble as that of Michelangelo's David. While it would be a great thing to see a more open view in this regard, one has to understand Japan a bit better first to understand why it's not such an easy thing to do.

Politics between the two nations aside, I don't foresee the Korean craze in Japan to simply die off because of some harsh words this year. I think it'll stabilize more and perhaps they'll be more able to share culture between each other. I hope PSY's dominance here recently though allows for the same to happen in America, where we can have more entertainers from other countries sharing their own tastes of their homeland with us, especially without the strings of it having to be in English attached.

#culture #japan #korea #music #popculture #relations #otaku