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further interest in Korea and contributed to the gradual decline of its
negative image in Japan. 49 However, the Korea boom, which gained momentum
in 2004, was only loosely connected to football. It was largely carried
on the shoulders of Japanese women of 40 and older – all fans of the
Korean television drama Winter Sonata and its leading character Bae
Yong-joon. The series began to be aired on the nhk terrestrial channel
in April 2004 and soon become a phenomenal hit, with viewer ratings of
more than 20 per cent. Armies of middle-aged Japanese women travelled
to Korea en masse to visit filming locations and sample the culture they had
witnessed on screen. The popularity of the drama has definitely changed
Japanese perception of Korea, and with it the attitude towards its cuisine. 50
There is no doubt that the ‘Korean Wave’ – as the spread of South
Korean pop culture throughout Asia during the last decade is commonly
referred to – was critical for the final embrace of Korean food by the
Japanese public. It would be misleading, however, to characterize the
popularization of Korean food in Japan as a late twentieth-century phenomenon.
Like many other aspects of multiethnic Japan, it has its roots in the
colonial ambitions of the Japanese Empire.
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