mantilo: a miscellany

This was lying in the dust. Intended as a companion article for this previously post on Japanese women and their relationships.

I cringe at the easy pun of the title, but here is another interesting article about the dating scene for Japanese women. Actually, this reminds me of the Ester Pan article about Asian men in general becoming “trophy mates” for white women. That was published in 2000…and save for Daniel Dae Kim’s inclusion as one of 2005’s “Sexiest Men Alive,” I haven’t witnessed that much of a change in perspective in the media.

This reminds me of a small wank over at a a celebrity gossip blog, where photos of popular bi-racial actor Daniel Henney were posted. Choice quotes:

“asians do nothing for me.”

“I KNOW it seems racist and all that but I could never find myself attracted to an Asian man. I don’t know why.”

“not to impose a stereotype on anybody, but he’s tall for an Asian guy.”

Japanese women seeking Seoul mates
Strong, sensitive Korean guys are hot in Toyko

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post
September 17, 2006

TOKYO — Thin and gorgeous in a slinky black dress, Mikimoto pearls and a low-slung diamond Tiffany pendant, 26-year-old Kazumi Yoshimura already has looks, cash, and accessories. There’s only one more thing this single Japanese woman says she needs to find eternal bliss — a Korean man.

She may just have to take a number and get in line. In recent years, the wild success of male celebrities from South Korea — sensitive men but totally ripped — has redefined what Asian women want. Gone are the martial-arts movie heroes and the stereotypical macho men of mainstream Asian television. Today, South Korea’s trend-setting screen stars and singers dictate everything from what hair gels people use in Vietnam to what jeans are bought in China.

Yet for thousands of smitten Japanese women like Yoshimura, collecting the odd poster or DVD is no longer enough. They’ve set their sights far higher — settling for nothing less than a real Seoul mate.

The lovelorn Yoshimura signed up last year with Rakuen Korea, a Japanese-Korean matchmaking service, to find her own Korean bachelor. And she is hardly alone. More than 6,400 female clients have signed up with the company, which says its popularity has skyrocketed since 2004, when “Winter Sonata” became the first of many hot Korean television dramas to hit Japan.

“South Koreans are so sweet and romantic — not at all like Japanese guys, who never say `I love you,’” Yoshimura said as she waited for her blind date, a single Korean man, in the 50th-floor bar of a chic Tokyo skyscraper. A telephone operator who lives with her parents in Hiroshima, she has spent thousands of dollars on her quest for a Korean husband, flying to Seoul 10 times in the past two years and bullet-training to Tokyo for seven blind dates with Korean men. So far, though, she hasn’t found the one she’s looking for.

“Maybe I’m living in a fantasy world,” she said, pouting her blood-red lips. “Maybe I’m looking for the TV stars I can’t really have. But we are all allowed a dream, aren’t we?”

In part, the new allure of Korean men can be traced to a larger phenomenon known as the “Korean Wave,” a term coined a few years ago by Beijing journalists startled by the growing popularity of South Koreans and South Korean goods in China. Now, the craze for all things Korean has spread across Asia, driving regional sales of everything from cars to kimchi.

Meanwhile, the number of foreign tourists traveling to South Korea leapt from 2.8 million in 2003 to 3.7 million in 2004. The bulk of the growth, South Korean tourism officials say, stemmed from Korean Wave-loving Asian women. Partial statistics for 2005 indicate the tide has not yet let up.

For the South Koreans, who have long suffered discrimination in Japan and who have hardly been known as sex symbols, it all comes as something of a shock.

Korean male celebrities are now among the highest-paid actors outside Hollywood. According to the South Korean media, “Winter Sonata” star Bae Yong Jun — whose character stood by his first love through 10 years of car accidents and amnesia — is now charging $5 million a film, the steepest price anywhere in Asia.

In Seoul, the neon-lit streets are mobbed these days by Asian women, many sporting rhinestone-studded T-shirts emblazoned with images of their favorite Korean stars. Some fans have been known to stake out eateries for hours in the hopes of catching a glimpse of their celluloid beaus.

“It’s still a little hard to believe that it’s gone this far,” said tall, tanned Jang Dong Gun, now one of the highest-paid actors in Asia, during an interview in Seoul.

Jang said he was shocked when, during his first trip to Vietnam in 1998 to promote his new Korean TV drama. Thousands of women mobbed his plane at the Hanoi airport and an armada of female fans on motor scooters chased his car all the way to his hotel.

In 2001, the Seoul-based manufacturer Daewoo Electronics hired him as its Vietnam spokesman. Over the past five years, the company said, its refrigerators’ market share in Vietnam went from a blip to a robust 34 percent.

Last year, Daniel Dae Kim, the Korean-born actor from the hit show “Lost,” was the only Asian to land a spot in People magazine’s “Sexiest Men Alive” edition. Entertainment industry leaders in Seoul credit the phenomenon to good marketing coupled with an uncanny response throughout Asia to the expressive nature of the South Koreans — long dubbed the Italians of Asia. A hearty diet and two years of forced military duty, industry leaders and fans insist, have made young South Korean men among the buffest in Asia.

Most important, however, has been the South Korean entertainment industry’s perfection of the strong, silent type on screen — typically rich, kind men with coincidentally striking looks and a tendency to shower women with unconditional love.

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