/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/SPORT-CULTURE: Korea-Japan Ties Score a Goal with World Cup

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, May 7 2002 (IPS) - Toru Yamanaka, 61, never thought he would one day be hoisting the flags of two countries – World Cup co-hosts South Korea and Japan — outside his grocery store in Yokohama city.

“It wasn’t that long ago when I believed the Koreans were not our friends because we could not trust them. Today, I feel so different,” says the vegetable and fruit seller, who says he is glad to have an opportunity, through the World Cup, to make amends with Japan’s closest neighbour.

Yamanaka says the hosting of the World Cup by Japan and South Korea, historically bitter enemies since Japan colonised the peninsula between 1910-1945, has helped the Japanese learn more about a country they had stubbornly ignored for so long.

“It’s about time,” agrees Akiko Konishi, a university student who decided to study Korean starting April, after her interest in South Korea was rekindled by the World Cup that starts in late May. “For years, I had no interest in that country till the World Cup provided me with the necessary impetus.”

Indeed, as analysts predict, thorny Japanese-Korean relations may well move toward a new era, thanks to the much-awaited catalyst -soccer’s biggest event, the World Cup.

A host of new overtures have already been launched in Japan to provide the public with a view of Korean culture — and it is being lapped up the public.

For instance, ‘Chingu’, a film co-produced by Japan and Korea featuring a love story between a Japanese policeman and a Korean woman, is running to packed houses.

“The World Cup is doing more to bilateral relations than local politicians,” points out professor Masao Okonogi, professor of Korean studies, at Keio University.

Despite a 1965 peace treaty under which Japan paid war reparations to South Korea, relations between the two countries have never been good and old hurts and suspicion resurface from time to time.

South Korea continues to argue that Japanese history textbooks gloss over atrocities committed during the colonisation period. Likewise, the issue of the Korean comfort women, a euphemism for sex slaves for the Japanese Imperial Army during the Pacific War, remains a simmering bilateral issue.

The Japanese emperor has not yet visited South Korea, even though he accepted an invitation in 1992 to visit China, which also experienced Japanese colonisation.

“Many Koreans still seem to harbour hatred toward Japan as the result of the annexation of the peninsula, while Japanese tend to have antagonistic feelings toward Koreans because of this,” says 64-year-old Hidetaro Nakajima.

Nakajima is a member of the Mellow Club, which recently invited several senior South Korean members of the KJ Club – ‘KJ’ stands for Korea and Japan – to visit Japan. The club aims to promote friendship between Japanese and Koreans.

Japan’s large Korean population – numbering almost 650,000 and making up largest ethnic minority in this country — has warmly welcomed the new initiative.

An apt illustration of newfound people-to-people ties is a new book, ‘The Path to a Successful World Cup’, by 31-year-old Shin Mugan, a third-generation South Korean sports writer.

Published in December, the book, which points out that soccer does not enjoy a long tradition in both countries, has however taken on a new meaning because the World Cup symbolises a passionate call by communities in both countries for closer ties.

“The World Cup is not all about sports,” says Mugan. “The success of the important sporting event is getting to understand one another better.”

Elsewhere, new television programmes featuring relationships between South Koreans and Japanese are now being aired on local television. In February, ‘Friends’ marked the first television drama co-produced by Japanese and South Korean television networks and is hugely popular.

While forging a new era between the two co-host countries could be the most significant outcome of the World Cup, a host of other activities has also sprung up to mark the event and to allow Japanese to get to know the world better.

The World Cup Lunch, a school lunch featuring dishes from Saudi Arabia to Russia to symbolise the various competing soccer teams, was thought of by Japanese schoolteachers as a way of introducing new cultures to locals.

Not to be outdone in this international ‘fever’ are Japanese businesses. Electronic manufacturers are reporting a boom in sales as the public picks up new television sets for digital satellite broadcasting services that will feature the World Cup games.

Actually, says electronic store manager Akira Noda, “the magic of the World Cup games is boosting the economy far more than government reforms”. He says the March sales of new televisions were up 15 percent.

Meanwhile, soccer mania has found its way into the favourite themes and designs for various World Cup-related products.

Because World Cup games are scheduled in various cities, local retailers have begun introducing new products, ranging from Japanese traditional rice wine sold in soccer ball-shaped bottles to a new hairstyle in the shape of the British flag..

Local businesses are hoping to take advantage of soccer fever – more than 400,000 fans are expected to visit Japan between May 31 and June 30 for the World Cup games.