On July 23rd, Takaoka wrote on his Twitter account that, “I don’t really watch channel 8 (Fuji TV) anymore. It sometimes makes me wonder if it’s a Korean channel. Japanese people want traditional Japanese programs.” Later he added, “It feels like Korean programs brainwash you, and it really makes me feel bad. Broadcasters need to realize its negative effect,” which resulted in him losing his contract with his management agency on July 28th.
This prompted the largely underground anti-Hallyu netizens in Japan to voice their support for Takaoka, and organize a group boycott on Fuji TV. They are organizing an event on August 8th to suggest tuning out of Fuji TV during the whole day to bring massive drops to their TV ratings. Fuji TV, the leading Japanese channel with the most Korean TV shows on, is shown on channel eight, which is why they picked August 8th.
Netziens are screaming, “No more Hallyu!” “Let’s show the power of Twitterians,” “Our goal is to make 0% TV ratings,” and “Japan is going through a tough period, and there’s no need to watch a broadcaster that supports other countries.”
The anti-hallyu sentiment amongst a portion of the population seems to be increasing recently as more and more Kdramas are shown. Many Kpop groups have also debuted in Japan and even their rookie groups can go on prestigious music programs that usually invites more established acts in Japan. Some netizens resent how much the Korean agencies have increasingly pushed their talents by 'buying' slots in these programs. They question that the amount of broadcasting time do not reflect the actual interest in Hallyu since many of the Korean dramas and variety shows with Korean singers/actors receive comparably worse ratings. Comparing different broadcasting stations they found FujiTV to broadcast the highest number of hours of Korean dramas in a month period (40 hrs).
On the other hand, however, there are people who strongly oppose this anti-Hallyu sentiment too. Mogi Genichiro, a prominent Japanese scientist who’s also well-known for his influence in Japan’s pop culture, wrote on his Twitter on July 30th in response to the Fuji TV-boycott organizers, “This is all too stupid. What is so wrong with Hallyu? We live in an era of globalism. Stupid nationalism is not just silly, but will worsen Japan’s overall situation.”
He added, “You guys should all stop making dumb statements, and let’s all study more. If we remain this way, Japan will become a third-world country. Fake nationalism, weak self-assertions, and no respect for other cultures, if we don’t get rid of this mindset, Japan has no hope. Everyone just watch Fuji TV!” He later added that he doesn’t understand why people are upset about Fuji TV showing lots of Korean TV programs, because for any broadcaster the goal is to record high TV ratings and make more profits, which means Korean TV shows are the most in demand and profitable.
Even with a long-week full of going back and forth between conservative Japanese netizens against the spread of Hallyu and more progressive fans that support the influx of Korean TV shows, the Japanese press and public still remain largely divided on this issue.
To all my friends in the world.
First of all, Thank you very much for all the aids when we had such a tragic disaster in March.
Now we are facing another big issue.
please save Japan, we need your help!!
Almost everyone in Japan who has a common sense, is being embrassed by today's controversial mass media.
For instance, they never stop broadcasting about praise of Korean pop music and their cultures.
However, in fact most of those are made up and fabricated by the controversial mass media.
Especially it got way worse after the disaster in March.
One brave Japanese actor named Sosuke Takaoka, spoke up about this tabooed topic on Twitter, and criticized on this Korean sided controversial broadcasts.
5 days after, he got fired by his agent..He totally lost his job
About this incident, over 320,000(over 320threads!) comments are already posted on the largest BBS in Japan , and most of these posts are about criticism against the TV station who broadcasts about praise of Korea too much.
Please copy this "【芸能】高岡蒼甫 クビに 批判の責任を取らされる★" and google it and you'll find the current thread easily.
Now this is the most top priority news ever on our Internet revolution.
But, mass media never talks about this our public willingness.
Then suddenly they started criticizing the actor's personality on TV shows instead.
In spite of democracy, and we must have the freedom of speech, this is definitely gag.
Our public willingness are completely ignored, and never been reflected because of these gigantic mass media's gag. This is so obvious.
All my friends in the world,
please help and save us by sending commonsencial fair comments from foreign countries to Japan since there is no other way that can help this country domestically.
Sincerely