Japanese idol slammed for unabashedly ignorant remarks about Korea while visiting

Article: “Korea’s capital is Parku”… Japanese idol member ‘criticized’ for comments on Korea

Source: Asia Economy via Naver

Hirano Sho (26) of a Japanese idol group named ‘King & Prince’ visited Korea with a Japanese variety show where he made a number of ignorant remarks that have been getting criticized online. When asked if he knew any Korean words, he said, “Xie xie and wo ai ni”. While standing in front of a ‘Seoul’ monument, he was also asked about Korea’s capital, to which he replied, “Paku (as in the Korean last name Park),” which netizens also took to mean as a play on the Japanese word ‘pakuri’, which means ‘fake’. When asked about the name of Korean currency, he replied, “Berry.” Another point of contention was when he referred to his visit to Korea. Korean and Japanese use words that differentiate between whether a foreigner is visiting the country versus a Korean visiting their home country, but he specifically used a term that refers to a Japanese person visiting a Japanese land, which netizens thought was a reference to his belief that Korea is still a colonized country of Japan. 

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1. [+1,190, -10] Even elementary students in Korea know that the capital of Japan is Tokyo, that China is Beijing… how unfortunate for this young man. Studying history and geography will help you out a lot in life and learning from other countries will help build your wisdom as well. This makes me all the more proud of the intelligent responses BTS’ leader gave to foreign interviews no matter how loaded the questions he was asked were.

2. [+428, -1] This dried squid looking kid is an idol?

3. [+257, -3] He looks like he wouldn’t even know the capital of his own country

4. [+197, -4] Just seems like a fool

5. [+103, -1] I feel bad for his intelligence

6. [+23, -1] Are we sure he’s even an idol? He looks so old

7. [+17, -1] Even the average choding isn’t this ignorant ㅋㅋㅋ Japan’s in big trouble if they keep allowing kids like this to prosper

8. [+17, -1] I guess Japan doesn’t care about how dumb their idols are. We’re more ruthless over here, tsk tsk.

9. [+11, -0] Is the idol in the room with us right now????

10. [+5, -0] What a fantastic way of displaying your ignorance. He’s too dumb to even realize that he’s basically spitting at his own face.

11. [+4, -0] Once again, proud to be a country that is home to RM

12. [+4, -0] This doesn’t even feel intentional, it feels like he’s actually just really dumb

13. [+3, -0] I’m more shocked that a face like his is an idol… Japanese standards

14. [+3, -0] Boy group? You mean elder group? That’s quite the face he’s got on there z

15. [+3, -0] If he really wanted to give it to us big, why not think of something more intelligent than this? This amounts to nothing more than bragging about how ignorant he is… 

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