S. Korea Leader’s Visit Is a Reel Success for Tokyo

For decades, Toyoji Kuroda has been promoting Japanese movies abroad.

But in South Korea, Kuroda, an official with the Assn. to Promote Japanese Films Overseas, rarely has been able to get past “go”--meaning the government. Because of lingering bitterness toward Japan, which occupied the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, Seoul still bans most Japanese movies, music and comics.

But the film promoter’s job stands to get a good deal easier in the future, one result of South Korean President Kim Dae Jung’s four-day state visit to Japan this week. Among a number of initiatives to improve trade, security and economic ties between the neighbors, Kim vowed to do away with the limits on Japanese cultural imports, “step by step but with significant speed.”

But the two countries still appear to differ about how to handle their hostile neighbor North Korea. While Kim has promoted a “sunshine policy” of dialogue with North Korea, Japan is angry about Pyongyang’s recent launch of a rocket in its direction and has put on hold its $1-billion contribution toward construction of light-water nuclear reactors in the North.

Despite the friction over the North, some Japanese initiatives probably will help further overall harmony with South Korea, including a $3-billion loan that is part of Japan’s pledged $30-billion Asian financial-aid package. On Thursday, Kim thanked Japan’s parliament for helping South Korea late last year when the country was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy and needed a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

And in an attempt to soothe old hurts, both Emperor Akihito and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi went beyond the general apology issued by former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama in 1995 for “its colonial rule and aggression” earlier this century--expressing “deep sorrow” and “deep remorse,” respectively, to Koreans.

Kim said he accepted the apology, noting that “the weight of Japan’s words was different” from the past. “It clarified whom they were talking to, and this time expressed regret and apology,” he said. Later, he told Japanese lawmakers that Japan and Korea have had a 1,500-year relationship marred only “for a short time by tragedy.”

“We should not overvalue this sad period, and look toward the future and a strong relationship,” Kim said.

The apology seemed to be welcomed on the streets of Seoul. “Past is past,” businessman Lim Jong Keun said. “Since they apologized in writing this time, I don’t see why we shouldn’t accept their apology and allow the emperor to visit.” (Kim invited the emperor to do just that, and the Japanese government is considering it.)

Having lived under Japanese occupation, many older Koreans are well-versed in Japanese culture. President Kim, for example, is fluent in Japanese: He was forced to speak Japanese at school, where he was known by the Japanese family name Toyoda.

Despite the ban on cultural products and some other Japanese goods such as cars, the two countries are significant trading partners. In 1996, South Korea was Japan’s largest export market after the U.S., buying huge amounts of machinery and chemicals. Japan, in turn, also imports substantial amounts of South Korean goods.

South Korean guidelines do allow what is considered “pure” art from Japan, such as stage dramas, opera, ballet, academic books and classical music. But products of Japan’s “popular” culture--its pop songs, movies, comics and videos--are forbidden.

Nevertheless, there is a thriving underground market for classic films made by the late Akira Kurosawa, among others. Japanese music is particularly popular among the younger generation that doesn’t remember World War II and can catch music videos on Japanese satellite television beamed into South Korea.

South Korean Yang Jin Sok, an expert on Japanese music, predicts that Japanese songs quickly will make up 10% to 15% of the popular music heard in the country once the ban is lifted.

The Seoul government allows Japanese films to be shown at some special occasions, such as the Pusan International Film Festival that ended last week.

Lee Bong U, a film producer in Japan, estimates that a popular Japanese movie such as “Shall We Dance,” which had sales of about $10 million in the U.S., would do at least half that volume in South Korea.

Raised in Japan by first- and second-generation Korean immigrants, Lee said he was thrilled by the South Koreans’ enthusiastic response at the Pusan film festival to his light comedy “Amateur Singers Contest,” a story about singing contests in Japanese rural towns. The film’s showing was halted temporarily for technical difficulties midway through; while waiting for the problems to be fixed, a Japanese actor in the film jumped onstage and started singing, and more than a dozen Koreans joined him on stage. (They sang Korean songs, however, because Japanese songs are banned.)

“Lifting the ban will have a positive effect on both Japan and Korea and upgrade the standards of movies and music,” Lee said.

Although the Japanese motion picture industry had “just about given up” on the idea of selling movies in South Korea, now they’re salivating, said Kuroda of the film association.

“After all,” Kuroda said, “we have 50 years’ worth of stock.”

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Chiaki Kitada of The Times’ Tokyo Bureau and Chi Jung Nam of The Times’ Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.