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Even though Japan is an ethnically homogeneous country with ethnic Japanese being about 99% of the population, it still has its ethnic minorities. Among these are the Koreans.
Koreans are the largest minority ethnic group in Japan, yet they have almost presence in Japanese productions, especially in anime and manga, while the Chinese, who are far less numerous, appear fairly frequently (perhaps because some Chinese traditional womens' clothing is form-fitting and revealing).
People of Korean descent number about 900,000 in Japan. Some choose to become naturalized Japanese citizens, thus making subsequent offspring Japanese citizens by birth. Ethnic Koreans who choose not to obtain Japanese citizenship are called Zainichi, and the popular stereotype is that they are singers or entertainers.
Japan and both North and South Korea have long had a tense relationship, as Japan conquered Korea, and for more than thirty years ruled it with an iron fist, actively trying to destroy its culture and language. A lot of Japanese discriminate against Koreans even today, while downplaying, or outright denying, the brutality of the Japanese conquest and occupation of Korea.
Note that in South Korea especially, protests are quite common, and can occasionally be pretty freaking scary. Therefore, it may be that some Japanese writers are hesitant to include Korean characters for fear of backlash. Reasonable justification or lame excuse? You be the judge.
Because almost all Japanese works or works set in Japan are "Korean-free", only exceptions should be listed.
Compare Chinese People
Exceptions:
- Manga Kenkanryu: An infamous right-wing political manga about the relations between Japan and South Korea. The Japanese are depicted as standard Mukoku Seki while the South Koreans look very "Asian" and ugly. Not only that, they are aggressive, are hateful towards Japan and pretend that most Japanese cultural landmarks originate from Korea. The truth is that many "Japanese cultural landmarks" do originate in other countries, including Korea.
- Though the manga is far from balanced, many of its criticisms of Korea have at least a little truth to them. For instance, Korean martial artists frequently do claim Koreans invented modern kendo—their sole argument being, in essence, "swordfighting existed in Korea, and some of it was borrowed by the Heian-era Japanese", which has the precise credibility of saying modern boxing is Italian, rather than British, because its far-off historic origins may be in Ancient Rome. Some of the manga's stuff about Japan's occupation of Korea, though, is inexcusable.
- Blake And Mortimer: Professor Sato has a Korean assistant called Kim, who undergoes a Face Heel Turn.
- In Osamu Tezuka's manga series:
- In Ayako a minor character is a fat Korean-Japanese called Gosei Kinjo who is revealed to be The Mole in a subplot involving a CIA agent, and is killed in the end. He looks very "Asian" compared to the other Mukoku Seki Japanese, including his manner of speaking.
- Phoenix: in the last two volumes, the main character is a Korean prince called Nerima. He is as Mukoku Seki-looking as the others. The fact that he becomes accepted as a Japanese citizen and gets reincarnated as a fully Japanese man in the future may help.
- Black Jack Neo: in this homage/sequel of Tezuka's manga by Mazayuki Taguchi, the first chapter is about Blackjack who gets interested in the works of a female J-pop singer. She is revealed to actually be a North Korean man who has undergone a sex-change and plastic surgery by Blackjack himself.
- Barefoot Gen has Mr. Pak, and Gen is one of his few friends.
- In Kiichi!!, Chan-Su and his mother are both Korean.
- Mi Yon Yi, or Miyon, of Kamichama Karin is one of Himeka and Karin's friends, and is drawn with slightly different eyes, but still as Mukoku Seki.
- Linda Linda Linda: In this movie about four schoolgirls who form a band, the lead singer, Son, is a recent immigrant from Korea. Although she has difficulty communicating with the other girls in Japanese, she's portrayed in a very positive light.
- Axis Powers Hetalia: Im Yonsoo representing the Republic of Korea. His depiction in the manga (as a child-like, naïve Know Nothing Know It All and Annoying Younger Sibling who has incestuous crushes on both China and Japan) has drawn the ire of some Koreans circles. Ire that had the anime pulled from TV before its first episode aired (thank God for the webcast).
- Yonsoo also says everything was created by him, much like the first example.
- The main ire was a strip where Korea groped Japan, and Korean protesters took this as an allegory to Liancourt island controversy.
- Touya Akira's school Go club teacher from Hikaru No Go is a Korean resident in Japan.
- Hikaru also stumbles into a Korean-run Go shop and irritates everyone there when he shows his complete ignorance of anything Go-related, especially when it comes to Korea. He does, however manage to befriend the shop owner's grandson after beating him in Go.
- Koryo Arc from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle takes place in an alternate historic Korea. The manga CLAMP based this alternate universe around, The Legend of Chung Hyang, is also about a legendary Korean heroine.
- The anime version of Winter Sonata averts the lack of Koreans in anime HARD, as not only is the entire cast Korean, they also speak fluent Korean (expected since they're voiced by the actors from the original K-drama series) with Japanese subtitles and the story predominantly takes place in Korea.
- In the Girls Love Visual Novel Safizumu no Gensou, one of the choices for main character and Schoolgirl Lesbian Anri is the young Korean girl, Fan Soyoung.
- The four-episode romantic comedy Friends (no connection to the American sitcom) is actually a very progressive Japanese/Korean collaboration. A woman from Japan and a man from South Korea meet in Hong Kong, fall in love, and start a long-distance relationship; she goes to a class to learn Korean and befriends a Zainichi girl who's there to get in touch with her heritage.
- Voice actress Romi Paku (or Romi Pak or Romi Park), best known for playing Ed Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist, is ethnically Korean.
- King Of Fighters: Kim, Chang and Choi are three Korean playable characters. They are not rendered in a stereotypical way, though they may have been joke characters in the beginning. However, Choi became very popular with Korean players.
- Let's not forget Kim's sons Jae Hoon and Dong Hwan (featured in Garou: Mark Of The Wolves, from the Fatal Fury saga), his old friend Jhun Hoon, and his pupil May Lee.
- Kim's other pupils Chae Lim from KOF Maximum Impact and Seo Yeong-Song from Buriki One, his possible ancestor Kim Hye-Ryen from Samurai Showdown, and Kim Sue-Il from Kizuna Encounter who looks and fights exactly like him with a staff but was revealed to be not related to Kim.
- Kang Jae-Mo from Rage of Dragons, Kim Dragon from World Heroes, and Lee Hae Gwon from Aggressors of Dark Combat seem to be the only SNK Koreans to not use Taekwondo.
- Trevor Spacey is an albino Korean in Metal Slug 4. Other than Eri, the Asians in Metal Slug seem to always have Western names.
- Han Juri in Super Street Fighter IV
- Who is, of course, both evil and skanky.
- Capcom didn't beat around the bush when they introduced this character. They flat out declared she is evil, works as Seth's henchman, and has no moral issues with killing others.
- Well, since the Street Fighter series is meant for an international audience, it doesn't really matter...So Yeah.
- Kinnikuman Nisei Unlike the original Kinnikuman, there are several Korean Chojin including Namul, Jijimiman, Bossam, and Tteok.
- The Bizarre Existentialist film Death By Hanging/Kōshikē features an ethnic Korean, R, sentenced to death. After he mysteriously revives, the Japanese men in charge of the execution debate on what to do with him. The racism that some of the officers hold towards the teenaged R is highlighted, deeply discussed and eventually lamented as an hurdle that cannot yet be overcome. This film was made in 1968.
- 2009: Lost Memories features an extremely assimilated Japanese Korea after 100 years of incorporation, expanding the trope to the Korean homefront.
- Not sure how much this example fits the trope, as it's written, directed, and produced by—and largely starring—South Koreans, with a handful of Japanese actors in the cast.
- True, this troper needed to pin the link somehow to have it available. But Seoul still looks too perfectly Japanese in this movie.
- Nerima Daikon Brothers has one episode involving a Korean-owned pachinko parlor— and this being an over-the-top parody series, the employees are disguised as Korean pop idols.
- Science fiction anime with ethnically diverse casts can include Korean characters, such as Kim Kyung Hwa from Irresponsible Captain Tylor and Myung Fan Lone from Macross Plus.
- For some reason, one of the stalls at the cultural festival gave Kyon extra kimchi. Given how little we know about him, he could very well be Korean. Or an Author Avatar, or any number of other things.
- Kimchi, for those who don't know, is a Korean dish of spiced vegetables, which is usually served on the side of many popular Japanese dishes.
- Virgin Snow focuses on a Korean exchange student and the miko he falls for.
- Kim in Inubaka is a Korean studying in Japan, and while he's drawn a little different (more obviously Asian), he's depicted in the same positive fashion as everyone else. The series even mentions the Korean custom of eating dog meat without a value judgment.
- The Shoot Em Up-slash-Fighting Game Senko No Ronde has a Korean character, named Baek Changpo. Saying that she is a Genki Girl is an understatement
- Breath of Fire IV has multiple possible subversions of this trope, with most showing up in the English localisation but a few even slipping into the Japanese versions:
- Some of the game mythology (particularly with certain references to Buddhist thought) read more Korean, and the Fou Empire in particular is an amalgam of Chinese and Korean cultural references.
- This trope gets completely and utterly averted in the English localisation to the point of overt deconstruction, in that all kanji used for rendering names of towns/spells/NP Cs/etc. are translated to the Korean hanja readings of those characters, and even a few non-kanji Japanese names are changed outright to Korean equivalents including not only the game's term noting Ryu as the Chosen One but the names of all the dragon NP Cs—"Arukai no Ryuu" (lit. "Dragon's Arhat", a term for a bodhisattva) gets translated to "Yorae Dragon" ("Yorae" is a Korean term for a buddha). In fact, the list of Mass Koreanisations is so extensive that fans of the series have compiled lists.
- And the Mass Koreanisation of names does not stop with Japanese, either (see below).
- At least two notes in game, plus a bit of an official artbook reference, give clues that this was actually done deliberately in that there are a few possible Korean references even in the Japanese version:
- Chinese-to-Japanese-to-Korean or possibly Korean-Japanese-Korean renaming occurs: Fou-lu's pseudonym (when hiding out in Sonne and being cared for by Mami) is rendered as "Ryong", which is Korean for "Dragon". The Japanese rendering is "Ron"—which indicates they got it from "Lung" (the Chinese reading for the same character) or from Japanisation of "Ryong".
- In some cases, some items were actually flat-out renamed to not only names of (unrelated) Korean instruments but (in two cases), two incredibly obscure Silla Kingdom ranks of imperial primogeniture. Seriously.
- There is a potentially more obscure pun/Koreanisation that shows up in the official artbook (which was only published in Japanese): the predecessor empire that summoned Fou-lu is identified as the "Muuru Empire", which is a perfectly reasonable Japanese rendering of the Korean word mireu—which happens to be an alternate reading for the hanja for ''ryong'' similar to "on" and "kun" readings for kanji in Japanese. Yes, you're reading this right: the writers likely inserted a very clever pun in Korean in the artbook backgrounder notes.
- The video game series Suikoden happily averts, with two of the major characters in the first two games (Tai Ho and Yam Koo) being not only very Korean, but heroic.
- Tai Ho and Yam Koo are both very plausible Chinese names, especially if you consider the variety of Chinese dialects out there that permit huge permutations in pronunciation; this seems a bit more plausible considering how Suikoden is essentially the Heroes of the Marsh story set in Fantasy China.
- Kunio-Kun no Nekketsu Soccer League, the Japan-only sequel to Nintendo World Cup, features the Korean soccer team. They are the weakest team in the game, being even worse than such real-life soccer powerhouses like Thailand, Mongolia, and New Guinea. Considering that in real life, the Korean soccer team is one of the strongest in Asia, and that it has a winning record against the Japanese team (especially back when the game was released, before the Japanese team greatly improved)...
- Most of Im Dal Young's manga feature a few Korean side-characters or references, which makes sense as he and his team is a Korean manhwa group.
- Namco Bandai sometimes includes Korean characters into their games, like Baek Doo San and Hwoarang in the Tekken Series or Seong Han-myeong, Seong Mi-na, Hwang Seong-gyeong and Hong Yun-seong in the Soul Series, Han Daehan in Ergheiz: God Bless the Ring.
- Incidentally, Hwang Seong-gyeong was originally made as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute of Mitsurugi for the Korean arcade version of Soul Edge (due to the fact that Korean laws banned the depictions of samurais in their pop-culture), but Namco liked the character so much that they included him in later versions. In Soul Calibur, which had both, Hwang and Mitsurugi, Mitsurugi ended up being replaced by another character named Arthur.
- Kim Dae-Jeong, which was humorously translated as Kim De John, and his cousin Kim Mihee in the Shoot 'Em Up, Shikigami's Castle. Though Dae-Jeong is said to be a "Taekwondo Master", this is an Informed Ability, as he throws swords in the game.
- Park Dae Suk in Urban Reign is a goth Korean Taekwondo master who looks like a cross between Kadaj from Final Fantasy and Hwoarang from Tekken.
- A large part of the plot of Yakuza 2 involves a Korean mafia group hell-bent on revenge for the deaths of most of its members. In fact, several major plot twists in the game are along the lines of "(Character X) is actually Korean!" There's also a side mission that consists of escorting a Korean pop star named Il Yu-Jin around the city while avoiding his rabid fans.
- There's been a trend of Korean drama series and movies gaining much regional popularity, even in Japan. Shout Outs can be seen in shows like Kamen Rider Den O (one movie opens with Urataros dressed as Bae Yong Jun) and Engine Sentai Go Onger (Saki states that she follows Korean drama, and one episode features a high school wih a drama club that's also sending up Bae Yong Jun).
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