Still chasing reconciliation: the 2002 Japan–Korea co-productions of the television drama Friends and the opera Chun Hiang

ABSTRACT

In the late 1990s, Japan and South Korea declared a new partnership toward reconciliation, which coincided with their relieved political tensions. In particular, South Korea’s lifting of the ban on Japanese cultural products signified a new era, one of cultural interaction following a prolonged period of interruption. Along with the influx of Japanese popular culture into South Korea in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the television drama Friends [Produced by Doi Nobuhirō and Han Cheol-su, aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) and Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC)] and the opera Chun Hiang [Composed by Takagi Tōroku] provided venues through which to facilitate mutual interactions between the Japanese and the Koreans, especially in Japan. By examining the narrative elements and production processes of these two cultural productions, produced in 2002, this article explores the ways in which the Japanese and the Koreans envisioned a cultural shift toward reconciliation in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

KEYWORDS:

• Friends
• Chun Hiang
• co-production
• reconciliation
• Zainichi Koreans

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The Joint Declaration included the following statement: ‘Prime Minister Obuchi regarded in a spirit of humility the fact of history that Japan caused, during a certain period in the past, tremendous damage and suffering to the people of the Republic of Korea through its colonial rule’. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, ‘The Joint Declaration of a New Japan–Republic of Korea Partnership towards the Twenty-First Century’.

2 The Korea – Japan Cultural Exchange Council, established in May 1998, provided guidance to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism regarding the formulation of cultural exchange policies with Japan. This guidance included specific procedures for lifting the ban on Japanese popular culture. The council comprised experts from various fields, such as Japanese culture, popular culture, history, and media. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism, ‘Ilbon deajungmunhwa gaebang bangchim tongbo’ (1998b), ‘2001 Munhwa jeongchaek baekseo’, 432. Donga ilbo, ‘Il bangsongmunhwa gaebang wonchik jikyeora’, February 18, 2002.

3 Much of the information about the production of the 1948 English-language opera Chun Hiang is drawn from my article, ‘Shūsen chokugo ni okeru Zainichi Chōsenjin no bunka katsudō: Zainihon Chōsenjin renmei ni yoru opera Chun Hiang no kikaku wo chūshin ni' [Cultural activities of Zainichi Koreans in the immediate postwar period: The project of the opera Chun Hiang planned by the League of Koreans in Japan], published in Nenpō chiiki bunka kenkyū [Annual report on area studies], vol. 14: 196–217 (2010).

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Eun Young Seong

Eun Young Seong is Assistant Professor of Japanese in the Department of Chinese and Japanese at Grinnell College.