Popularity of Korean Dramas in Japan and Japanese Dramas in Korea: Why?

SMAP (JAPAN)

GIRL'S GENERATION (KOREA)

K-Pop and other Korean related culture are booming in Japan, creating a huge fandom and a place for Korean culture to settle in Japan. In the same way, Japanese Pop culture is penetrating Korean market with drama, music, fashion and what not. It is quite interesting how two neighboring countries are always arguing politically, yet love each other so much when it comes to Pop culture. Isn't that so melodramatic! I would like to discuss the characteristics of each pop culture, and why they are so popular in each other's country.

Korean Pop Culture

Korean Pop Culture, just like Japanese Pop Culture, mainly consists of music (called K-Pop), drama (TV series), and fashion. Before starting this point, I would like to introduce the concept of "idol" in Asian countries. Unlike the actual meaning of "idol," in Asian countries, especially Korea and Japan, idols are usually boy or girl groups consisted of many young people singing and dancing a popular song, whether it be K-Pop or J-Pop. They also excel in many other areas, such as dramas, movies, musicals, and what not. Back to the main point, K-Pop has become a huge presence, since Korean Idols started to go abroad in Japan and other Asian countries to gain more fans around the world. It was so successful that now most of the idols go abroad, once they gain a certain level of reputation and popularity in Korea. To be a popular K-pop idol, one needs to dance, sing, and act well. Not just that, but pretty and skinny to where all the cute, sexy clothes. It is hard to be a popular K-Pop group, but once you are, everyone will love every single thing you do. They go through many years of training, some even stay as a trainee up to 10 years. Now that the Korean system of producing "idol" has improved to the extent that people from other countries go to Korea to train and become one.

Next, dramas are actually one of the culture that Japan loved the most from the beginning. Starting with the boom of "Winter Sonata", in which Yong June Pae starred, young and old Japanese women started to dig into Korean dramas. Korean dramas are characterized by its very melodramatic plot and intense character development, individually and together, forming many types of relationships. Also, Korean dramas usually consist of male characters that any woman on earth would want to date. For example, this one male character is handsome, tall, muscular, yet is a doctor, who is faithful to whom he loves. When he talks, he talks in a mid-low-pitched voice, with the sweetest words. How can a girl pass by without falling in love with him? The best part is that usually in Korean dramas, these perfect men fall in love with the most ordinary girl. This is why all the female audience can't stop staying away from the television every morning and night. Not just these, but all the melodramatic features catch audience's attention every single moment. There is no one moment, in which people are bored. Depending on the length of the production, the plot advances at the right pace, so that audience can immerse into the story and feel for the characters. This is one unique characteristic for Korean dramas. While showing a character with all the qualities that people want, dramas also give you a character that matches the characteristics of "you," the viewers. This way, people can immediately empathize with characters and become a loyal audience of the show.

Fashion, however, does not impact much in other Asian countries, given that each country usually follow their own celebrities' fashion trend. However, this point relates back to the Idol culture, since fans try to buy fashion items or clothes that their favorite Idol wears to be more like them. Otherwise, Korea and Japan have very different fashion sense, and they do not affect each other too much.

Japanese Pop Culture

Before even starting an entire discussion, I would like to state that Japanese Idols are the first ones in the world to be called as Idol in such a way I described previously in this post. Just like Korean Idols, Japanese Idols have to excel in various fields. Thus, the Korean and Japanese Idols share most of the characteristics. However, unlike most of the Korean Idols, many Japanese Idols are known to be "exotic." I am not sure how to describe, but it is true that many groups have a very "different" sense of beauty. Also, there are many groups in Japan with more than dozen of people. They even compete against each other to be the leading member of the group. Strange it may seem, it is one of the reason why Japanese Idols are so unique.

Japanese dramas are certainly a prominent field. Japanese dramas have so many different themes, making them unique from other countries'. For example, one of my favorite Japanese drama is "Gokusen," and the background is High School homeroom full of students with bad behaviors. Surprisingly (or maybe not even surprisingly), the new homeroom teacher is a brave girl from Yakuza family. This setting already shows how intriguing Japanese dramas are. This is just one example; that is, there are many more dramas with themes that are hard to even imagine. I personally think that Japanese dramas are so diverse that you can choose what to watch, even though most of them are still entertaining to just watch. These days, there are many dramas that cover issues that are socially controversial. This point, I'd say, is similar to Korean dramas, yet many of Japanese dramas pick on some issues in a very straightforward manner. On the other hand, many dramas try to teach lessons to audience. It means that the dramas are written so that at the end, audience should feel in a certain way.

Why are they so popular in each other's country?

(From now on, I would like to base many of my ideas on my personal experience and talking to other Japanese and Korean women in their 20s.)

KPOP and JPOP are similar, yet different. I think this is why they love each other so much. To start with music, Korean Idols train for a long time to sing and dance well at the same time. Songs usually are high-pitched, making it even harder for them to sing, but then they have the most complicated dance routine ever, which makes it very difficult for a normal person to imitate. However, Japanese idols usually either concentrate on one or do both at a simpler level. I am not saying that one is better than another, but there is a difference in what they pursue in order to increase the number of fans. This subtle difference allows Korean fans to love JPOP and Japanese fans to love JPOP. The difference between them is actually pulling each other together.

Korean dramas have been a sensation in Japan since "Winter Sonata." After that, many of the Korean dramas have been exported to Japan. At the same time, many of Korean actors and actresses became very famous and popular in Japan. It created a new type of fandom, different from Idol fans. Like this, Japan imported lots of Korean dramas, and showed the translated versions on TV. However, the way Japanese dramas became popular in Korea is a little bit different. At first, many Korean people watched Japanese dramas individually, since there weren't many TV channels that imported and showed Japanese dramas. Also, the number of people who liked it was not as many as some people thought. Interestingly, when the story was adapted to Korean culture and reproduced, Korean viewers loved them. Thus, Korean production companies started to import the scenarios or stories, and reproduced the dramas with Korean actors and actresses, filming them in Korea mostly. This way, Japanese dramas gained popularity in Korea, since many Korean viewers went back and watched the original Japanese drama to compare and contrast.

Although they appreciate each other's pop culture in a slightly different way, I think it is great that one complements the other, and vice versa. This way, both KPOP and JPOP can improve and develop to become a better partner for each other.