It looks like Apple TV+’s Pachinko is being culturally alienated in Japan. Apple appears to have given up promoting its first South Korean TV series in the country out of fear of receiving social backlash.
Unlike Apple’s other Youtube channels vigorously promoting its new series – Pachinko, its first look is nowhere to be found on the streamer’s official Japanese YouTube channel. This seems to be due to the strong aversion of Japanese viewers toward the newly dropped South Korean show.
Set in Korea, Japan and the United States, Pachinko is based on a novel that takes us through four generations and each character’s search for identity and success as Zainichi Koreans. Many say that the series explores the trauma of history by confronting Japan’s colonization of Korea as it shares a peek at the daily lives of Koreans at the time. The series showed how colonized citizens were subjected to forced labor and slavery by Japan, and revealed how some South Korean citizens were brutally murdered during the Great Kanto Earthquake incident.
The newly released South Korean show has triggered a heated debate on Japanese social media, with many disapproving its historical approaches. Some even called it “a completely made-up show” with claims like “the colonization helped the South Koreans in the economic aspect.” Some even insisted that “Koreans sold rice to Japan for a ridiculously high price at that time.”
With such atmosphere and hospitality, Apple seems to be reducing the promotion of Pachinko in Japan.
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