Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who's the fairest Asian of all?

When the venerable nyt covers a story, especially one concerning asia, you know it's a rather big issue..Although several months too late, the new york times delves into the latest china/japan/korea controversy which revolves around the popularity of two anti-korea and anti-china books in japan.

Japan's disdain for china and korea is nothing new but might be a revelation to many westerners as japanese are so adept at tatemae and honne. And westerners especially Americans' perception on animosity between china, japan, korea have something to do with western media's portrayal of the situation where most of the news from east asia regarding the tensions between the 3 nations had been depicted as one-sided; korea and/or china's animosity and hate toward japan but the media hardly ever mention ordinary japanese people's hate/bias toward koreans and chinese. The nyt's article brings some light into japan's true feelings toward her neighbors and her tendency to look down on korea, china albeit in a much subdued and subtle way.

As with many of Mr. Onishi's articles relating to china, japan, korea relationship this article lacks depth and goes out of its way to avoid criticizing past and current japanese society which promotes and turns a blind eye to hate mongering but it's good to see at least one U.S. media outlet has decided to show a glimpse of true japan with the usual friendly facade stripped away.