A year after the historic cohosting by Japan and South Korea of the 2002 World Cup finals, Japan's embracing of things Korean appears to have gone beyond being simply a one-time fad.
When the World Cup began with an opening ceremony in Seoul on May 31 last year, there were still skeptics who questioned how close the two neighbors could really become. But the number of Japanese studying the Korean language is rising, while it is no longer odd to find foods such as South Korean nori and instant noodles on supermarket shelves.
Hiromi Hasegawa, 34, who works for a trading house, said the World Cup prompted her to begin studying the Korean language at the Korean Cultural Service in Tokyo's Minato Ward in April.