I’m asking this as a Japanese person.
This is something I’ve felt for a long time, and it’s about the left and right wings within South Korea.
In Japan, the right wing is basically what most people imagine: patriotic and generally hostile toward foreigners. But they are also pro-American.
On the other hand, the Japanese left is like this: they are extremely anti-Japanese, constantly criticize their own country, and almost never criticize foreigners. They are anti-American, or more precisely anti-U.S. military, and they tend to praise China and South Korea. They also never really show pride in their own country. It is basically endless criticism of Japan.
I feel that, even by global standards, Japan’s left wing has an unusually strong tendency to be self-deprecating toward its own country.
I assume the Korean right wing is similar to right-wing groups in Japan and other countries.
But what I want to understand is the Korean left. I understand why they are anti-Japanese. There are historical issues behind that.
However, when I look at social media, one thing that stands out to me is that many Korean leftists seem to be very “patriotic.”
When I see Korean left-leaning people on X saying things like “Korea is superior to Japan,” “Korean industries are amazing,” and “Japan is declining,” it looks very much like an extension of Korean-style left-wing nationalism.
It feels similar to the kind of patriotic behavior that Japanese right-wingers engage in, or rather, it feels like there is a very strong ethnic-nationalist tendency.
What do you think about this?
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