“I want to be a Korean” and “I want to be a friend with someone who loves Korea.”A young Japanese woman who loves Korea is leading the ‘3rd New Hallyu, Korean wave’.
The Korean Wave is booming in middle-aged women after the drama “Winter Sonata” was popularly performed in Japan about 15 years ago, but in recent years, young Japanese women in their teens and twenties are in the center.
The situation has reversed in the past when Korean women followed Japanese fashion, such as the ‘Loose socks’ a style of baggy sock worn by Japanese high school girls, as part of kogal culture.
They posted 7200 posts on the “I want to be Korean” tag on social media (SNS) and 370,000 posts on “I want to be friends with someone who loves Korea” tag.
As for the contents, it was mainly about Korean celebrity and Korean women’s fashion talk, and some articles about the relationship with Korean men were noticed. There were photographs to travel to Korea and photographs of Korean.
In those pictures, it was difficult to tell who was a Korean or a Japanese, and there were also many articles written by Korean young people.
The local media reported that the solution is not easy to find after the rapid cooling of Korea-Japan relations, but the younger generation has been exchanging cultural experiences with younger people in Korea regardless of the conflicts.
These trends include Girls’ Generation, Kara, and TVXQ, which have gained popularity in Korea starting from the Korean Girl Group Twice, appearing at the end of the year ‘NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen’, and the hottest Korean boy KPOP group such as BTS as well.
Twice came on the Oricon weekly album chart shortly after their debut in Japan, and the single album that he released is in the top spot, enjoying great popularity locally.
Music and media company Oricon ranked Twice as the reason for its popularity in Japan as a result of capturing the hearts of teenage girls. At the same time, it is the opinion that ‘the outstanding beauty of Korean women has triggered the third Korean Wave.’
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They call the fashion of Korean women ‘Ulzzang(Good looking) fashion’, and they are following the cosmetics and coordinating accessories. At the center, there are sites that introduce Korean fashion and sell clothes made by Korean designers.
It is said that Japanese women’s catching up with Korean women is easily noticeable in Harajuku and Shibuya, where many young people gather together.
This trend is also revealed in the survey of the trend marketing company ‘FRIL lab’.
The company has surveyed 1,700 women in June on the question of ‘fashion-referenced country’, with the result that 47% of teenagers and 27.5% of 20-year-olds pointed to Korea.
The results were 7.9% and 5.5% higher than the same period last year, and they said that they are a pretty appearance of Korean women who have come to SNS for a decisive reason to resemble Koreans.
Even in a cold Japan-Korea diplomatic relationship, younger generations are looking at each other and growing friendships.
There is still a lot of problems to solve, such as a desire for Dokdo and a sincere apology to the victims of the comfort women, but it seems that the private exchange should continue as it is now for the friendship development of the two countries.
On the other hand, unlike the past, the idea of marrying Koreans and acquiring nationality has been reduced.
The local media said, “The word ‘I want to be a Korean’ passed on to the SNS means ‘I will yearn for Korean fashion and culture.’ It seems to have shown a desire to interpreted.”
