SJ comments

The Washington Post also reported that no one knows exactly why covid cases in Japan keep plummeting.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/22/japan-covid-omicron-falling-cases/

I speculate that Japan has already reached herd immunity following India, probably mainly through infection, with help of vaccination:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/positive-rate-daily-smoothed?tab=chart&country=JPN~IND

If Japan needs to conduct similar antibody tests as India did a few months ago:

https://www.thequint.com/coronavirus/more-than-90-percent-have-antibodies-against-coronavirus-report-union-government

Now it is highly likely that Japan has already reached herd immunity following India, probably mainly through infection, with help of vaccination:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/positive-rate-daily-smoothed?tab=chart&country=JPN~IND

https://www.thequint.com/coronavirus/more-than-90-percent-have-antibodies-against-coronavirus-report-union-government

The territorial claim of the Japanese government on Takeshima is comical. Japanese people know what 'Takeshima' literally means: bamboo island 竹島, but there is no bamboo in Takeshima.

But, there is another small island called 'bamboo island' (Jukdo 竹島 in Korean) at 2 km (1 mile) east of Ulleungdo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jukdo_(island)

You may see those abundant bamboos there: https://wayfaringflaneur.com/2018/09/02/jukdo%EC%A3%BD%EB%8F%84-bamboo-island/

Japanese government never mentions this real bamboo island (Jukdo in Korean) when they explain their territorial claim. They intentionally omit it, or obfuscate it with Ulleungdo. For example:

https://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/takeshima/position.html

https://www.mofa.go.jp/a_o/na/takeshima/page1we_000057.html

Long time ago, Japanese fishermen certainly recognized the existence of Jukdo 竹島 near Ulleungdo island. At that time, Takeshima did not designate the Liancourt Rocks, but Jukdo to Japanese fishermen. Both Jukdo and Ulleungdo are now Korean territories that Japan and the other countries acknowledge. Now the Japanese government claims the territorial right with a wrong name or a wrong location.

There are 7 Japanese islands called the same name Takeshima (竹島 bamboo island) along the coast of Japan, and all of them have bamboo:

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%AB%B9%E5%B3%B6_(%E6%9B%96%E6%98%A7%E3%81%95%E5%9B%9E%E9%81%BF)

But only one exception is the remotely-located Liancourt Rocks, called 'Dokdo' in Korean, which literally means a rock island. It is a consistency problem. Koreans knew that it consisted of rocks, and therefore bamboo could not grow there. The so-called bamboo island without any bamboo was just an ad hoc, imaginary island for Japan to forcefully occupy Dokdo in 1905. Now they still shout "the bamboo island without any bamboo is a Japanese territory".

@Joe Blow

@Sindhoor GK

Refer to the following opinion by a Japanese write: https://diamond.jp/articles/-/287181

(in Japanese).

@egads man!

You say this when Japan has the director Takashi Miike??TOP TV Shows on Netflix in 2021

Good question. Yes. I do not deny that there are some Japanese directors exploring the dark side of Japanese society, but they are generally not welcomed by Japanese viewers.

I talk about the popularity. Let me show an example. The most popular TV shows of Japanese Netflix this year: https://flixpatrol.com/top10/netflix/japan/2021/

Tokyo Revengers

Tokyo Revengers

Jujutsu Kaisen

Vincenzo 

Crash Landing on You 

My Hero Academia

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

Nevertheless 

Squid Game 

Attack on Titan

Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha 

Kingdom

All are Korean dramas or Japanese animes. No exception.

But, Squid Game is not so much popular in Japan compared with other Korean hit dramas such as Crash Landing on You or Itaewon Class.

The main reason is the Japanese stereotype of K-dramas and K-pops is that the main characters should look beautiful and the contents should be romantic and fantastic. Squid game is simply too realistic with ordinary-looking Korean actors and actresses. This also explains why Gangnam Style in 2012 was exceptionally unpopular in Japan, generating the conspiracy theory of F5 key. Japanese people and their government tend to hate exposing or watching something too dark and realistic, but instead, love anime and manga of fantasy.

@OssanAmericaNov. 8  02:53 pm JST

Nobody has ever feared, or will ever fear, a Korea unified or not.

Ordinary Japanese may think like you, but your leaders and scholars are serious about it.

https://asiatimes.com/2010/02/the-last-frontier-of-the-cold-war/

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/yamaji2004.pdf

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/The-Big-Story/Imagining-a-unified-Korea

Simply, the Japanese government fears a unified Korea.

The article does not mention the weight of the crab, but in S. Korea, the price of big (1 kg in weight) snow crabs (Chionoecetes opilio) at the local market is about USD 100. http://illdung.com/product/%EB%B0%95%EB%8B%AC%EB%8C%80%EA%B2%8C-%EC%98%81%EB%8D%95-%EC%A0%95%ED%92%88-1k%EA%B8%89-%EB%A7%88%EB%A6%AC%EB%8B%B9-115000%EC%9B%90/71/

Live snow crabs imported from Russia are even cheaper.

S. Koreans do not hate Japanese people. Simply the majority of them oppose some policies of the Japanese government. They clearly tell between the government and the people. I have never heard that any hate crime happened against Japanese people in S. Korea.

I speculate that Japan has reached herd immunity following India, probably mainly through infection, with help of vaccination:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/positive-rate-daily-smoothed?tab=chart&country=JPN~IND

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/6th-delhi-sero-survey-shows-97-prevalence-101635443569509.html

In Japanese: https://gendai.ismedia.jp/articles/-/88425

He still have yet to tell he is influenced by Japanese series and anime but he will never.

Typical Japanese reactions to Squid Game, which become a target of worldwide derision, but they still do grasp what happens outside of Japan. For example: https://www.facebook.com/229023931411/posts/10160462911686412/

@In_japan

Only the blood splattering part is little too much.

I am not quite sure, but it is probably related to the unique, violent and tragic modern Korean history, which most aged Koreans still remember. Many innocent civilians, including children, were arbitrarily selected and then massacred without any trial. Some notable examples:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeju_uprising

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geochang_massacre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwangju_Uprising

https://img.khan.co.kr/news/2010/05/09/20100510.01300104000001.02L.webp

@Joe Blow

As if Koreans never do the same to foreigners.  

He added "I think I was someone like Ali back then", admitting it also happens in Korea. He is straightforward and honest.

But, most Japanese people are not interested in Squid Game at all.

For Japanese, K-dramas and K-pops should look fanciful, featuring extremely beautiful performers. Squid game is simply too realistic with ordinary-looking Korean actors and actresses. This also explains why Gangnam style in 2012 was exceptionally unpopular in Japan, generating the conspiracy theory of F5 key. Japanese people and their government tend to hate exposing or watching something too realistic, but love anime and manga of fantasy. Chinese people also traditionally love fantasy (e.g., Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海经) and My Love from the Star (來自星星的你)).

At least, Japan seems a little better than HK in that the government does not directly intervene in the contents.

Congrats!

Both talk to their domestic audience, not each other.

It was good, but the Americans playing the VIPs were hideously bad actors with laughably stilted dialogue.

It has been the same for the Asians appearing in Hollywood movies.

Japan is like China in regarding cinema as a national propaganda tool. S. Korea was once the same under the military regimes before 1988. This is the same for freedom of the press.

Governmental interventions always curb the creativity of movie makers. Now the Korean government supports developing the infrastructure of the art and entertainment industry, but never intervenes in the contents. An exception was the black list of artists compiled by the former, mindless president Park who was later impeached.

It is not surprising that Hirokazu Kore-eda went to Korea where he was welcomed.

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/art/2021/07/689_295078.html

The governmental "Cool Japan" strategy will eventually undermine the image of the country. Being honest is always a virtue in movie-making.

Some Japanese say the show, Squid game, is a rip-off of many Original Japanese films, which are also copies of others and so on. The big difference is that those death-game films focus on games, but Squid Games explores human nature. It bluntly exposes every dirty side of contemporary Korean society to the world.

A Japanese critic summarized it well as follows: https://realsound.jp/movie/2021/10/post-878490_2.html

目指すものは、あくまで社会の歪んだ姿を明らかにすることであり、そこで生きる人間の存在を描くことだ。

Under the current regime, Japan never can produce global megahit films like Squid Game. Korean filmmakers do not hesitate to expose any ugly aspect of Korean society, but the Japanese can not. For example, no Japanese politician welcomed the 2018  Palme d'Or-awarded film during Cannes, Shoplifters (万引き家族) by Hirokazu Kore-eda, because they do not like showing the darker side of their society. They fear facing the truth.

@BackpackingNepal Oct. 10  03:26 pm JST

And these are the Originals, All Japanese.

(2000) Battle Royale

(2007) Kaiji

(2014) As the Gods Will

(2020) Alice in Borderland

@kennyG

It's not a secret the director of the work officially stated, the motif(s) are based on Japanese Manga/movies as he’s been a big fan of those.

Kaiji.

Battle Royal

Liars Game

20 century boy

and more...

Have you ever watched any episode of Squid Game?

Those are all about games, but Squid Game is about humans.

More surprising is this still can be a news headline. Everybody already knows it.

Everybody is talking about it, and I binged to grasp what the fuss is about.

Just one comment. The show is far closer to reality in S. Korea than you surmise. Massacres and fratricidal killings were widespread, especially just before and during the Korean war. Here I still can see traces of old villages deserted by massacres more than 70 years ago.

Coincidentally, I subscribed it today. But I am unfamiliar to it.

More surprising is that North Korean missile tests still become a headline in Japanese media.

@ Kazuaki Shimazaki @kennyG

All the crap about forced labor and comfort women only surfaced in the 80s onwards.

I am wondering whether you can explain why Japanese Mitsbish apologized to the US, but not to Korea as mentioned in the following news footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLdr4imdXwI&t=529s

Readers' comments in Yahoo! Japan are amazingly homogeneous and chauvinistic on the same article. They seem to have been well indoctrinated by the revisionists and Japanese government: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/pickup/6399454

I think the Japanese government has better withdraw the UNESCO site rather than go against those massive and patriotic Japanese. The current S. Korean government seldom defies the people.

More info and testimony from the Korean side:

https://youtu.be/cCH6VdyuxGU

https://youtu.be/GLdr4imdXwI