ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates Japanese social media responses to the news concerning the Itaewon outbreak in South Korea in May, 2020. Although some users express their candid opinions, comments on NewsPicks are similar to those on Japan’s mainstream media. NewsPicks users’ comments concerning privacy are mixed. Japanese YouTube users are not an exception. Unlike those on NewsPicks, comments on the news concerning the South Korean outbreak seem rather unrestrained. They include straightforward sexual terms as well as hate speech with discriminatory terms, targeting, mostly gays, Koreans, and Japan’s mass media. Social media users’ discussions on the subject were unrestrained, reflecting racism, homophobia, and other stereotypes and prejudices against gay people and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer community, as well as Koreans. 2channel comments are as offensive as they can get. Their expressions of hate speech against gays and Koreans are rather straightforward and dangerous to the extent that they could be criminally charged depending on the law.
