Using women’s professional golf as the simplest and clearest example, this essay contrasts South Korea’s harsh survival-based society with Japan’s mature competitive culture.
It examines how the rise of Park Seri led to an overwhelming influx of Korean players into the U.S. LPGA and later the Japanese tour, demonstrating that Japan is not an anti-foreign society but one that accepts fair competition without resentment.
Originally published on May 11, 2017.

To give the simplest possible example, one need only look at the world of women’s professional golf.
May 11, 2017.
Mr. Bill Rogers, please read this chapter as well.
June 30, 2012.
To give the simplest possible example, one need only look at the world of women’s professional golf.
After a national hero named Park Seri emerged in a country that is difficult to live in, Korean parents rushed en masse to turn their daughters into professional golfers.
As a result, the U.S. women’s professional tour came to be dominated by Korean female professionals, and its popularity plummeted.
Then, next, they advanced in large numbers toward the Japanese tour.
Every week, the winners are them.
If this were Korea, after just two weeks there would be a torrent of criticism.
The tour itself might even be suspended.
Yet among us, including the female professionals themselves, there is not a single person who complains.
On the contrary, people say quite naturally, “We are competing on the same field.”
What part of a country like this could possibly be described as disliking foreigners?
Mr. Bill Rogers, please read this chapter as well.