Japanese Media Claims That “Squid Game”‘s Popularity Was Only Possible Due To “Chart Manipulation”

Squid Game has been continuing to impress with its record breaking viewership reach, as the series maintains its hype despite it having premiered over a month ago. As positive as the overall response as been so far, however, there have been a few negative reactions to the global success of the K-Drama.

According to reports, the Japanese media have been downplaying the success of Squid Game, sharing numerous reasons why they believe the series is not as popular as the media wants you to believe. Japanese economic site Modern Business recently shared with their public “3 reasons why people are actually not addicted to it.”

The author of this publication, Naoko Yamamoto began to make claims that while the “number of viewings are high in Japan,” the show did not elicit a great response from the viewers. She then revealed that all the articles that mention Squid Game seemed to generate less than 100 comments, which according to Naoko Yamamoto is “an indication of the level of interest that the people have.”

She continued with her claims, stating that the entire Japanese entertainment industry is not interested in mega-hit Korean production because “death game genre productions, such as Squid Game have been done before [in Japan].” The Modern Business author listed Kaiji and Battle Royale as the two Japanese productions that have a similar premise as Squid Game, but they did not receive a positive response from the global public.

In addition to that, Naoko Yamamoto shared her true thoughts on the series’ success, stating that the “ranking can be manipulated.” She continued by stating that South Korea has the ability to manipulate the charts, “like they do with K-Pop.” 

Following the release of this Modern Business‘s publication, Korean netizens criticized Naoko Yamamoto’s claims, commenting that she wrote it out of “jealousy.”

• “They’re the ones who always say South Korea has no money and are worthless, but whenever something big happens, they’re the first ones to say South Korea uses their money to manipulate charts…”
• “Uh huh, sure hahahaha”
• “They already had so much inferiority complex because of our success with the Billboard Awards and movie ceremonies, but now since even our dramas are doing well, they can’t take it anymore can they? Hahaha”
• “They can’t actually believe that their dramas, movies, and lack of popularity are due to chart manipulation, do they? Please get a reality check ㅠ.ㅠ I pity them.”
• “The way they attempted to expose us is really distasteful. Such a tacky country.”
• “They’re going crazy out of jealousy ha”
• “Manipulation? She doesn’t seem right in her mind.”

Squid Game became an incredible headliner overnight, as the series received global success all over the world in record time. The South Korean drama became Netflix’s biggest series launch, reaching 111 million fans and households. The dystopian series overthrew its previous successor, Bridgerton by 29 million as it went on to dominate record after record.