Maybe they're just trying to stop that damn Korea boom. :)

I have nothing against Korea but I can't handle anymore of that Yon-sama craze BS.

In the article, they mention the Korean boom and then decide not to actually dig deeper into what it means for Japanese marriage practices.

The Yon-sama phenomenon is really worth looking at in more depth. Here's a Korean who has become the idol for millions of Japanese women, especially older ones, and can whip up hysteria with a public appearance (I believe some ladies were actually taken to hospital recently after a stampede at the airport when Yon-sama appeared).

Yon-sama seems to appeal to middle-aged women who like how Korean dramas still use the same template from Japanese dramas in the 80s. In same way Japan feels about the West, the Japanese like the Koreans now - as long as they stay in their own country.

Well, I can tell you that Japan is far ahead of Britain in neighbourliness. It's impossible to imagine a Frenchman attaining Yon-Sama's visibility in the UK. The last to get anywhere close was Eric Cantona, the super-aggressive footballer who got bought by a British team, but the idea of a french heart-throb is just not on the agenda at this point. Europe is still regarded with suspicion by most British, who don't want to enter the European single currency, are pretty much unaware of European cultural events, and see Brussels somewhat as they saw Moscow during the Cold War.

this month Yon is the sama, before that Beckham was the sama, before that it was Leonardo sama.

BTW, since the CSM is read mostly by westerners, probably more by men than women, perhaps the motive for the article was a bit self serving?

the yon-sama thing is actually for the 35 and up age group, with a heavy emph. on the AND UP. most of the ladies are in their mid-40s, and the main reasons they enjoy mr. happy is that he reminds them of their youth in the more 'innocent' japan of the late 70s and early 80s (mid-bubble). also, the plots are melodramatic (the koreans i:ve met tend to wear their hearts on their sleeves,the japanese don:t), but i think this also is a big pull for the older crowd of ladies. anyway, their are other details to be talked about. demographics is one of them. the 'david beckham' think was more across the boards. but the real iron in all of this is that the 韓流 thing isn:t doing a damn thing for the actual koreans (who have moved here or were born here) already here. read my little conversation between Byung-jik and Nick to get an idea of what:s going on in the trenches.
kiss,
r.

So the words 'Korea Boom' mean nothing to you, r? No relation at all to the Yon-Sama phenom? Your dialogue between a Korean and me mentioned art world collaborations but failed to mention either Yon-Sama or the 'Korea boom'.

http://www.asahi.com/english/opinion/TKY200411180152.html

I guess if you don't want to see this stuff, it just isn't happening? (BTW, for those of us involved in Shibuya-kei, this boom began to be manifest in the mid-90s, when both Cornelius and Pizzicato 5 started using Korean scripts on their record sleeves.)

Also I'd mention the major investment by Japanese label Avex in Korean records labels and artists, which led to the chart-topping success of BoA... I think with the oldies drooling over Yon-sama and the youngies bopping to BoA, you have quite a cross-generational phenomenon going on here.

Momus:

Yon-sama is boring because it's a phenomenon involving older, mildly pathetic women.

BoA is boring because it's a phenomenon involving Avex Trax.

The Shibuya-kei connection to Korea seems to be an anomaly seeing that the words "oshare" and "Korea" rarely go together. Korean culture has always seemed extremely status-conscious and monotone to me. They go for nouveau riche brands and black/white instead of crazy rainbow-colored subcultural looks based on 60s Europe. I can't really get into it, nor do I think it's really adding a new palette to Japanese culture. If anything all this Vuitton/Gucci is just making Japan more like Korea. Great.