By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Jun 18 2004 (IPS)

Nothing will persuade Michiko Suda, a 38- year-old homemaker, to leave home on Saturday evenings when her favourite drama is showing on television.

”Not even the cajoling of my husband or closest friend (can stop me). I would even skip a wedding rather than miss the TV drama,” insists the cheery woman, who says it is the first time in her life she has gone gaga over a television series.

Suda is not alone, because tens of thousands of Japanese women, mostly in their thirties and forties, have become ardent fans of a sappy soap opera on television.

More than that however, the soap opera they are all watching on the edge of their seats is, incredibly, made not in Japan but in neighbouring South Korea.

This highlights an emerging trend in the lucrative Japanese entertainment industry, which has traditionally relied on domestic or Western productions for business.

”It’s boom time for South Korean productions,” says Haruko Konishi, a producer for So-Net, a new satellite broadcasting company that has invested heavily in South Korean-made productions.

The huge success of ‘Winter Sonata’, a South Korean soap opera, currently playing on NHK-G, a broadband company of the public broadcaster NHK, is a case in point.

The television drama was first aired in 2002 on NHK’s BS-2 satellite channel, getting good ratings that prompted the company to rerun the love story again in March – to even more success.

In a powerful sign of the changing times, NHK also decided to allot a primetime slot to ‘Winter Sonata’. In doing this, NHK had to postpone the showing of the episodes of the U.S. production ‘The White House-2’.

In a step in the same direction, NHK also decided to postpone ‘No More West Wing’, another U.S. television series, despite the fact that there were only four more episodes to go before the series finished.

”The popularity of South Korean productions underscores a new thrust in Japanese entertainment that has hitherto relied on the West. The trend is here to stay,” says Tomohiro Sagawa, analyst at ‘Nikkei Business’ magazine, Japan’s leading publication on entrepreneurship.

According to Sagawa, the success of Korean television dramas, despite the fact that they remain concentrated in the broadband market, has helped pave the way for the penetration of Asian cultural productions into Japan.

”Up to now, Japanese productions were the storm in Asia, but it is safe to say the opposite is happening now. Asian productions are becoming business opportunities for Japanese companies as they struggle to stay alive,” he explains.

So-net, a satellite company set-up two years ago, cannot agree more. Konishi reports that for instance, the showing of the 18- sequel South Korean drama ‘Shinjitsu’ (Truth) in July 2003 on its Sky-Perfect TV channel helped triple its 749 subscribers.

So-net is a subsidiary of Sony Communications Corp, and has three channels featuring original television series, documentaries, and sports programmes.

”We have reinvented our image and now focus specially on South Korean dramas as our main selling point,” says Konishi.

In April So-net invited South Korean actor Ryu Shi Won, to promote a new drama, the third, starring Ryu.

This August, So-net will air ‘Lavender’, a television drama from Taiwan. ”We are cashing in on the boom of Asian productions and moving further to other countries. The risk is worth taking,” explains Konishi.

The Internet has also been aiding the boom – already, 78 new broadband and cable stations are operating today. While the number of subscribers is still between three to four million compared to Japan’s population of 126 million people, analysts predict it will grow.

”The youth are our main target,” says Konishi of So-net. ”They are more open to variety and need constant stimulation. Asian products fill this business need as they are cheaper to buy and provide something new.”

Even the lucrative Japanese animation market, the world’s most envied, may now face a tough threat from neighbouring Asian countries.

Breakthroughs have been recorded recently by South Korean animation series such as ‘Africa, a.F.r.I.c.A’, which features issues including poverty and AIDS.

In April, TV Tokyo’s animation channel began airing a South Korean cartoon series, ‘Animation Lagnarok’, comprising 26 episodes of the colourful adventures of six monsters.

On the pop music scene as well, inroads are being made by Asian artists. The newest singer gaining public attention is Thailand-born Palmy, scouted by Tokyo-based Universal Music World Japan.

Hiroaki Kaneko, production manager, explains that Palmy, 22, born to Thai and Belgian parents, has the looks and voice that suits the Japanese market. ”Japanese youth can relate to her because she is fashionable and physically resembles them. With massive promotion, we can make her an idol on par with Japanese singers,” he explains.

The factor to watch, Kaneko says, is the change in Japanese tastes that are now widening from western to Asian products.

”The test is to convince the Japanese public that Asia has quality productions and pop music on par with Japan and the West. Our focus is on educating the Japanese to change old attitudes that took the West as best,” says Kaneko.

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