Korean Language Flourishes in Japan Amid South Korean Cultural Surge
Korean words surge in Japanese daily life as South Korean pop culture fuels a linguistic shift, with Zainichi communities and classrooms embracing the trend.
POLICY WIRE — Tokyo, Japan — Korean vocabulary is increasingly woven into everyday Japanese speech, reflecting a broadening appeal of South Korean culture across the archipelago.
The current popularity marks a stark contrast to the early 20th‑century policies when Japan actively suppressed Korean language use during its colonial rule.
Experts note that the phonetic resemblance between the two tongues and the countries’ geographical closeness make mutual language acquisition more attainable than with distant languages.
From hit television dramas to youth slang, commercial campaigns and university classrooms, Korean expressions are now visible in multiple facets of Japanese society.
Koreans represent the second‑largest ethnic minority in Japan after Chinese nationals, with the majority identified as Zainichi Koreans—descendants of migrants who arrived during Japan’s rule of Korea and now hold citizenship or permanent residency.
Historical waves of Korean migration, spurred by wars and geopolitical shifts in the 19th and 20th centuries, have forged long‑standing links of trade, cultural exchange and settlement between the two nations.
Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)
