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november 26, 2004

japanese warm to the new face of an old enemy
from leo lewis in narita

ni_mpu('middle'); tears of relief poured from hanako umeda’s eyes as she ran into narita airport to find that her heart-throb, prince yong, had not yet landed. she had spent weeks preparing the right clothes, the right words and the right make-up to meet him. but her joy was brief as she took in the scene: more than 4,000 rival women had been firmly in place since 6am and had bagged all the prime positions. hundreds more were flooding in by the minute. to ms umeda’s horror, many of them were waving even larger posters than the one she had brought. “he’ll never see me or hear me tell him i love him,” she wept. “and i even learnt to speak his language.” narita airport has hosted arrival-gate mania many times before, but not with this level of hysteria. david beckham and tom cruise have regularly pulled in healthy crowds, but japanese star worship has never been on this scale and, more significantly, has never been directed at a korean. the mistrust that exists between the two countries is a legacy of japan’s colonisation of korea, which was officially annexed in 1910 and run by a governor-general appointed by tokyo until the end of the second world war. korean culture, language and traditions were subjugated by the japanese. after japan’s defeat in 1945, korea was divided between the americans and the russians. the division was meant to be temporary but the cold war caused the establishment of separate governments in the north and south. but bae yong joon, a 32-year-old south korean actor known as prince yong or yong-sama to his japanese fans, is at the core of a phenomenon. his appearance in a television drama, aired a year ago, has created a huge army of obsessive japanese fans and generated an entirely new view of korean men. after years of strained relations, japan is in the throes of a “korean boom”. the great majority of the women who made the trek to narita yesterday had never heard of bae before winter sonata monopolised monday viewing, but have now become collectors of his work and connoisseurs of korean drama. bae has managed to tap a new demographic of screaming, tear-soaked fans: most of yesterday’s throng comprised middle-aged married women. when asked whether they would rather be prince yong’s lover or mother, most were unable to decide. sugiko saito is a 50-year-old schoolteacher who took the day off and arrived at narita the previous night to find the airport closed. after an uncomfortable night camped out on luggage trolleys, she managed to secure a front-row position at the arrivals gate. “i took three weeks’ worth of korean lessons so that i could shout out and tell him what i think of him,” she said. “being this close is the biggest thing in my life.” since watching winter sonata, ms saito explained, she has begun venturing into shin-okubo — the district of tokyo with the highest concentration of korean residents, shops and restaurants. there she was able to find all the things she would need to “make yong-sama a happy home”: korean cooking ingredients, tea and crockery. she was not surprised to find the shops crammed with japanese women on similar missions. sales at korean stores have tripled in recent months. asked why yong-sama had sparked such a frenzy, ms saito said: “i don’t think any of us can really explain why we love him — he represents a different type of life and a different sort of man. i think the drama showed us that other men from asia are really gorgeous. of course many people like beckham, but since the affair scandal, his image here has crashed: we needed someone like yong-sama to be our dream man.” yong-sama’s arrival also provided a glimpse of the dark side of the korean boom as policemen and other male officials found themselves derided for being japanese. “you’re all short and ugly — not like yong-sama,” came a plaintive voice from the crowd. bae is taller and more muscled than the average japanese husband and his character in winter sonata was seen as a more sensitive man than japanese women are used to. beyond yong-sama, the korean boom has produced a series of striking effects. japanese tourism to south korea rose 10 per cent last year, in part driven by package tours that stop at locations from bae’s films. other groups include younger women in search of potential husbands in the hope that korean men are all like yong-sama. the korean boom has also generated a thousandfold increase in female japanese membership of matchmaking companies operating between the two countries. tetsuo taniguchi, president of the matchmaker rakuen, said: “the boom triggered by winter sonata is a good opportunity for a better relationship between two countries.” according to japan’s leading chain of korean language schools, japanese students of korean have doubled since yong-sama hit their screens. japanese-korean tension 1910: japan colonised korea and fiercely imposed its own culture there 1945: japanese occupation ends with defeat by allies 1965: normalisation of relations between japan and south korea 1979: japan and korea began informal ties on defence 1982: japan criticised over school textbooks’ version of japanese colonisation of korea 1989: seoul-tokyo relations deteriorated as tokyo began to improve relations with pyongyang 1995: japan’s “apology bill” passed. widely criticised as too watered-down, expressing “regret” for colonial past rather than an apology 1997: tempers flared over disputed takeshima island 2000: south korean government lifted blanket ban on live performances by japanese musicians 2002: football world cup held in korea and japan

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