Hate Wave or Media Heat Wave?

Captain Confederacy isn't the only figure in comics sparking racist allegations of late. Hating the Korean Wave is a Japanese manga title that's been floating around the lips of editorials and blogs the last few months. The Seattle Times ran a piece today countering the assertions of a New York Times editorial from last November.

Recently, a report that a comic book titled "Hating the Korean Wave" has sold as many as 360,000 copies suggested strong anti-Korean sentiment in Japan. This report failed to note, however, that the percentage of Japanese having warm feelings toward Korea increased from 36 percent in 1996 to 57 percent as of 2004.

Further, Korean TV dramas and actors are extremely popular in Japan (thus, the "Korean wave" or "boom"), and among Korea-related book sales on Amazon.com Japan, the seven best-selling products deal with Korean dramas or calendars featuring Korean actors.

One blog, The Marmot's Hole, has a thread on the subject displaying both sides of the cultural debate. The blogger personally cites unfavorable portrayals of Koreans and Chinese in Japanese television as evidence of negative trends.