Japanese Idol Faces Backlash For His Ignorant Comments About Korea On A TV Show
A Japanese idol named Sho Hirano is currently facing backlash from Korean netizens for his comments about South Korea on camera.
Sho Hirano is a member of the Japanese idol group King & Prince. The 26-year-old singer was recently spotted on a Japanese TV program that was shot in Seoul. On the show, he was asked if he knew any Korean words, and the idol replied, “xiè xiè, wǒ ài nǐ,” which means “thank you, I love you) in Chinese.
While standing in front of a Seoul monument, Sho was asked about the capital of South Korea, to which he replied, “Paku.” Viewers are guessing two different meanings of his answer. According to one opinion, he was potentially ridiculing the Korean surname “Park,” while some others think that he was referring to the Japanese term “Pakuri,” which means “fake.” He also said that the name of the Korean currency is “Berry,”
But perhaps the one comment that offended Korean people the most was when he referred to his visit to Seoul as “nae-il.” In the Japanese language, different terms are used to differentiate between when an individual is visiting their homeland and when they are visiting a foreign country. In this case, the correct term for Sho to use would have been “nae-han,” which means “visiting Korea.” The term he used instead, “nae-il,” means “visiting Japan.” To most viewers, this statement seemed to reference his belief that Korea is still a land colonized by Japan.
Netizens reacted to the video with fierce criticism of the idol’s behavior and some even sarcastically joked about his intelligence level based on the remarks made.
- “Even elementary students in Korea know that the capital of Japan is Tokyo, that China’s is Beijing… how unfortunate for this young man. Studying history and geography will help you out a lot in life, and learning from other countries will help build your wisdom as well. This makes me all the more proud of the intelligent responses BTS’ leader gave to foreign interviews no matter how loaded the questions he was asked were.”
- “This dried squid-looking kid is an idol?”
- “He looks like he wouldn’t even know the capital of his own country.”
- “He just seems like a fool.”
- “I feel sorry for his level of intelligence.”
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