good ol' Japan is back!

Korean culture is popular all over the world these days, including Japan. As part of the so-called Kan-Ryuu, or “Korean Wave”, Japanese feminine-types are watching Winter Sonata and swooning over its star, Bae Yong Joon (as reported in an earlier Japundit post), Korean barbeque continues to be a favorite family Friday-nite treat in Japan, and, just to prove idiocy is international, treacly Korean pop is gaining popularity across Asia. The Korean tourist board has a fair and balanced view of the Korean Wave phenonmenon here.

But guess what’s the number one-ranking book on Amazon Japan right now? That’s right, Ken-Kan-Ryuu, which loosely translates as the Anti-Korean Wave. According to the publisher, the manga book tracks the intellectual awakening of an “ordinary” high school student who finds history hard, but has the “vague understanding that Japan has done bad things to Korea.” Everything changes when he becomes a university student and realizes the “surprising truth about Korea and its history.”

After publishers “refused” to print the book for two years, the book was finally released last week. Already a bestseller, Amazon Japan warns that delivery of Ken-Kan-Ryuu should take two to three weeks (Amazon Japan usually delivers in two or three days).

In the case of Ken-Kan-Ryuu, it is indeed possible to judge a book by it’s cover. “This is an extremely dangerous book,” the book jacket warns. “Why did Korea invade Japan’s territory, the Takeshima Islands?” screams another blurb. “There is no need to apologize to Korea or offer reparations,” shouts another.

The ever-useful “Ninki Blog Ranking” lists the most-viewed Japanese blogs in a number of different categories. There are blogs for mothers who wish to help their children study more effectively, blogs devoted to tracking the movements of celebrities, and blogs that discuss the best way to diet. And, like any other online community, Japan has no shortage of blogs devoted to punditry, with most of the discussion focusing on the deteriorating relationship amongst Japan and its Asian neighbours, China and the two Koreas.

According to the blog rankings, Japanese bloggers are in no mood for reconciliation. And despite the popularity of all things Korean in Japan, the so-called Kan-ryuu, or Korean Wave, many bloggers are taking aim at Korea.

Choose (what you believe) Carefully! Information on Korea is the sixth most popular blog in Japan right now, according to Ninki Blog Ranking, and bills itself as an antidote for the Japanese “mass media’s tendency to beautify Korea.”

Other popular political blogs include (currently the 7th most popular Japanese-language blog),We Don’t Need No Kan-ryuu (ranked at number 11), and The Truth About Asia - what the mass media doesn’t tell you about China and Korea (occupying 12th place).

Historical revisionism has gained popularity in Japan over the last decade. While many apologists for Japan’s wartime past are simply obnoxious at worst, such as Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, there are other hip, charismatic commentators like Yoshinori Kobayashi, author of the popular Sensou-ron series of manga books, who are adept at arguing that, thanks to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan was a victim rather than a victimizer during the last war.

Other arguments percolating through the Japanese blogosphere state that Japan was pushed into the war by the Unites States, and that Japan was actually liberating Asia from European colonizers with the hopes of fstering autonomy and independence of all nations, economic progress, and the eradication of racial discrimination.

That's the good old Japan we all know and love! It's only a matter of time before the Japanese govt chooses that ken-kan-ryuu manga as j.h history textbook..
Not long ago there was an incident in Japan where some Japanese politicians(think 34) pressured a publisher to suspend publication of a manga depicting Nanjing massacre because as the Japanese politicians claim, the massacre never happened and no proof that it did.. And now this manga titled ken-kan-ryuu is the best seller.. What next, Japan depicting itself as the victim of pacific war..?(being sarcastic)