著者

斉藤 慎一 李 津娥 有馬 明恵 向田 久美子 日吉 昭彦

出版者

東京女子大学比較文化研究所

雑誌

東京女子大学比較文化研究所紀要 (ISSN:05638186)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.71, pp.1-32, 2010

---

The Hanryu boom-strong interest in South Korean pop culture-has been rapidly expanding in many Asian countries since the late 1990s. Several years later, Japan was also witness to the Hanryu boom. The boom in Japan further advanced owing to the popular Korean soap opera "Winter Sonata,"which was first broadcast on NHK in 2003. Gradually, since the media attention decreased, the Korean craze died down in the past few years; however,the popularity of South Korean pop culture seems to have a strong hold in Japan.This study examines how people evaluated the Hanryu boom and whether the increased popularity of South Korean pop culture contributed to improvement in the Japanese perceptions of and attitudes toward South Korea.To address these research questions, we conducted a sampling survey from November to December 2006. One thousand Tokyo residents aged between 20 and 74 years were randomly selected from a Tokyo poll-book that listed all electorates. Each resident was sent a questionnaire by mail; 367 effective questionnaires were returned.Results show that respondents made relatively balanced judgments regarding the Hanryu boom. While many respondents thought that the Hanryu boom contributed to improvement in the relations between Japan and South Korea and advanced cultural exchange between the two countries, they also regarded the boom to have certain negative aspects. More than 60% of the respondents felt that the Japanese media reported the Hanryu boom in an exaggerated manner, and about 20% said that it put unresolved political issues, such as different historical perceptions between the two countries, on the backburner.The results reveal that many respondents still consider South Korea as a closed and traditional society, although they also regard it as an economic power. With regard to the influence of the Hanryu boom, the data shows that about 36% of the viewers of Korean TV dramas/movies developed a more positive perception of Korea.In addition, a multiple regression analysisindicates that women, highly educated individuals, and heavy viewers of Korean TV dramas/movies were more likely to have a better percetion of Koreans.The data also demonstrates that while about 40% of the respondents perceived the current Japan-Korea relations to be relatively good, the remaining thought otherwise (about 60% regarded them as poor). A multiple regression analysis indicates that although demographic variables do not show significant associations with the perception of the Japan-Korea relations, those who favored the Hanryu boom and highly evaluated former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's foreign policies were more likely to consider the relations between the two countries to be good. In addition, the data from an open-ended question indicates that the respondents who judged the Japan-Korea relations to be good tended to do so mainly based on the augmented exchange of popular culture in recent years, while those who regarded the relations as poor were more likely to base their judgment on unsettled political or historical issues.