Growing up with a Korean mother is always a tough thing to do, but somehow we Korean children always persevere. One of the things that my mom always, no matter what, commented about was her opinion on Japanese people. Ever since the Japanese invasion of Korea, the Japanese always had a bad wrap with the Koreans. Here are just some of the things that you might hear from a Korean. Now, I do not agree with these items below; I totally love Japanese stuff and appreciate their culture.
1. Japanese people are all greedy.
Now this stereotype comes from Japanese imperialism back in the 1930's, and even today. The Japanese invaded Korea and took all our land from us, and once they lost, they still want to take our land. Korea has these little islands called the Dokdo Islands, or according to the Japanese, the Takeshima Islands, claiming that the islands are within the Japanese Sea, meaning that whatever is in that sea belongs to the Japanese, apparently. The Koreans argue that the Dokdo Islands have been Korea's even before the war, and so belong to the Koreans, also including that the sea isn't the Japanese Sea, but instead, the East Sea. The whole thing is complicated really.
2. All Japanese people play games.
3. Japanese people are racist and xenophobic.
4. Japanese people are all weird.
Whenever Koreans see some advertisement or music from Japan, they always assume that the end result is something really, really weird. Koreans like to make things cute and cuddly while Koreans also think that all Japanese take cute things and make them weird, like a grown woman being portrayed as a young girl, or depicting great Japanese generals as girls.
5. Japanese people are really into sex.
Koreans tend to believe that Japanese people love sex, 24/7, every minute of the day. They tend to base this on what they see in Japanese entertainment, lots of sex ads and suggestive stuff.
