ABSTRACT
On 31 January 1994, the former Korean ambassador to Japan and incumbent minister of foreign affairs in Korea mentioned, in an interview with journalists in Seoul, that “it was time for Korea to examine the possibility of ‘opening up’ (kaebang) to Japanese popular culture.” His comment instantly provoked nationwide pros and cons on the issue, not only because it touched on Korea’s sensitive relationship with Japan arising from its colonial past but also because it was uttered not by a Japanese but by a renowned Korean diplomat. The issue became all the more sensational because, at the following sessions of the National Assembly in February the same year, assemblymen railed against the government for “secretly” promoting the official importation of Japanese popular culture without “proper” measures. One assemblyman even warned the Minister of Culture and Sports against “becoming the second Lee Wan Yong.”2 To make matters more complicated, President Kim Young Sam commented, at an interview broadcast by NHK (the Japanese national station) in March 1994, that this question would probably find a “solution” during his term of office, insinuating a possible imminent deregulation before the beginning of 1998.
