ILLIT’s Moka Gets Heat For Introducing Herself In Japanese At Korean University Performance

It’s university festival season in Korea, and that means many K-Pop groups are performing for tens of thousands of students across various colleges in the country. A lot of those invited to perform are younger or more rookie-aged groups, and ILLIT has been one of the artists to appear at multiple events.

A couple of days ago, at Korea University’s Kutopia Festival, the young girl group already was getting some backlash due to their alleged lipsyncing during their performance.

On May 23, the group (minus Wonhee due to health reasons) performed for the Hannam University Festival in front of an impressively large crowd.

#ILLIT without #WONHEE by their sides feels so empty, please get better soon. our illies also did do well performing at hannam university festival. (ㅇuㅇ) illitville loves you !! pic.twitter.com/83uPpU6C97

— Σ(ʘωʘ )ﾉ (@biicharl) May 23, 2024

And while the performance itself seems to be getting pretty good responses, there was one part of the show that, out of context, has been getting a lot of backlash from Korean netizens.

The screenshot below has been going around social media, stating that Moka, one of the group’s Japanese members, introduced herself in her native language.

ILLIT Moka came to our university and introduced herself in Japanese..ㄷㄷ

Caption: ILLIT Moka speaking Japanese at a Korean university

With just this information, Korean netizens were quick to criticize and mock the ILLIT member, with some comments even telling her to “go back to Japan”.

• “If you’re gonna do this, just go back to Japan.”
• “She calls herself a K-Pop idol, meanwhile she’s not even able to speak Korean. If you’re gonna do that, go back to Japan. You’re still young enough to join AKB.”
• “I don’t have any hatred towards Japanese members, but why do Japanese who are Japanese down to the core come to K-Pop? Anyways, it’s clear that groups who are the most successful overseas are groups with all full Koreans or groups with barely any Japanese in it, so please stop putting Japanese people in groups. Anyways, the Japanese music market is big enough, so why not play within that pie? Why should we help Japan?”
• “They said that Hankuk University of Foreign Studies has a department for Japanese  ㅋㅋㅋ NingNing didn’t go to Kyunghee University and say, “Where’s the Chinese department?” in Chinese ㅋㅋㅋ Seriously, if Japanese people are that proud of being Japanese, then go back to live in Japan, why touch K-Pop?”
• “I don’t know what she was thinking ㄷㄷ It’s not like a Korean going to Japan and greeting them in Japanese, but a Japanese coming to Korea and greeting in Japanese. What’s the meaning of it?”

However, some people sought out more of the context of the situation. It turns out that most of Moka’s introduction was spoken in Korean, with just a small section spoken in Japanese after she asked if any students in the audience were majoring in it.

moka asking if there are any students that are majoring in japanese language then introducing herself in japanese ♡ pic.twitter.com/zREGDUBzPg

— moka pics (@mokaspic) May 9, 2024

With this context, others came to Moka’s defense.

The members of ILLIT have really been going through it lately, and we hope that they’re able to stay healthy and positive despite the turmoil going on around them.