In 2025, when everyone is talking about Korea
Not a day goes by without seeing Korean content. It's been a while since the last few years, and it's been called the fourth Korean wave boom. YouTube and social media have delivered content to people who previously had no interest in Korea, television and newspapers have reported on politics and entertainment, Netflix has captured the hearts of drama fans, and NJZ (formerly New Jeans) has brought K-POP to people beyond just K-POP fans. It's also becoming a popular overseas travel destination for people of all ages.
Korea is such an interesting and fascinating country.
And then you want to tell people about the fascinating things that exist in a neighboring country you didn't know about before. Of course, I'm one of those people. But for this feature, I wanted to go back to the idea of "knowing nothing." Korea, which is two and a half hours away from Tokyo with no time difference, certainly has a lot in common with Japan. That's why it's easy to have preconceived notions, and your eyes are drawn to the differences even more. But every time I spoke to the people I met while traveling around Korea for two weeks, I realized that even though I'd already been there many times, I still knew nothing.
The special feature includes a lot of travel guides, but for an issue featuring cities overseas, it is written with a lot of text. I tried to put together the pages as carefully as possible so that the words of key people can be conveyed, even though I don't know much about them. I hope you will take the time to read it.
Finally, one phrase that left an impression on me.
These are the words that singer-songwriter, writer, and filmmaker Lee Ran said in an interview.
"Don't dream about Korea"
Her words seemed to contain both negativity and positivity. They came from the bottom of her heart, and that is surely another side of Korea.
I became even more confused, but I thought that was fine.
