You really don’t know?

EARLIER this week, we saw that NHK-TV chose not to invite any K-pop performers to appear on its famous New Year’s Eve program, Kohaku Uta Gassen. Four K-pop groups appeared last year.

This seems to have upset the three major South Korean newspapers.

The Joongan-Ilbo charged that they were deliberately excluded, and asked:

Is it really not related to the Dokdo (Takeshima) problem?

They added that the groups who appeared on last year’s show were more popular in Japan this year. Shojo Jidai and KARA sold more than 100,000 albums and received gold discs from the Recording Industry Association of Japan

They also didn’t find the NHK explanation very convincing.

The Chosun Ilbo asked:

Why the declaration of a boycott of South Korean singers?

Note the typical exaggeration — one program on one network constitutes a “boycott”.

The Dong-a Ilbo also complained about the “exclusion” of K-pop singers.

The exaggerated posturing impresses no one but themselves. Of course it’s about Takeshima. And President Lee’s statements about the Emperor. And the continued decades of obnoxious behavior of many South Koreans toward Japan that they’re now exporting to unrelated countries. They put up absurd propaganda billboards in Times Square and expect Japan to turn the other cheek?

And be allowed to appear on the quasi-governmental television network as if nothing happened?

The thread has been broken, and they’re the ones who broke it.

Meanwhile, it is still against the law for a Japanese performer to appear on South Korean terrestrial television at all — yet the Korean media gets enuretic when Korean singers are not included on one Japanaese television program.

It’s time for some people in South Korea to get over themselves.

But that would be too much to ask, wouldn’t it?