Questioning Kobe University Professor Kan Kimura’s Analysis of the South Korean Economy—The “Paper Tiger,” Anti-Japanese Education, and the Responsibility of the Sankei Shimbun
2018-11-29
2026-08-04 Reconstructed and Republished
The chapter I published yesterday under the title “Can You Not Even See That South Korea’s Economic Growth Is Nothing More Than a Paper Tiger?” ranked seventh in Ameba’s official hashtag ranking for “Kobe University.”
This is indeed a cause for mutual congratulation.
I believe it was in last month’s issue of the monthly magazine Voice that Kan Kimura, a professor at Kobe University who presents himself as a specialist on the Korean Peninsula, contributed a strange article.
His argument was that South Korea’s present conduct was not, as Japanese commentators claimed, the result of South Korean political leaders attempting to gain popularity.
He referred, among other things, to the government’s supposedly high approval ratings.
He then advanced the peculiar argument that South Korea behaved as it did because its economy had grown and Japan was no longer as important to it as it once had been.
Kan Kimura.
The reason Japanese people feel profound anger toward South Korea’s present conduct and say, “We can no longer tolerate this,” is the ugliness of its “bottomless evil” and its “plausible-sounding lies.”
Your article, claiming that South Korea looks down on Japan because its economy has grown, does nothing but harm and brings no benefit whatsoever.
Can you not even see that South Korea’s supposed economic growth is nothing more than a paper tiger?
If South Korea were truly achieving economic growth, why would youth unemployment remain above 10 percent?
Why would large numbers of young South Koreans rush to mass recruitment events held by Japanese companies, declaring that “there is no hope in South Korea” and describing their country as “Hell Korea”?
Why do bridges built by South Korean construction companies collapse in various places?
Why can you not recognize that South Korea lacks genuine technological strength?
Even Samsung cannot manufacture a single smartphone without the outstanding components produced by the world-class group of companies of which Japan is proud.
Why can you not recognize even this fact?
If Kan Kimura is going to call himself a professor at Kobe University, he must reveal the true condition of the South Korean economy.
If he fails to do so, he is not only unworthy of being called a university professor but is merely an advocate for South Korea—that is, for the Korean Peninsula.
A small column in the Sankei Shimbun, apparently written not by an ordinary reporter but by a member of its editorial board, offered this article a peculiar form of praise.
The Sankei Shimbun has genuine journalists such as Masayuki Takayama.
Compared with the Sankei Shimbun of thirty or forty years ago, today’s newspaper is as different as the moon is from a snapping turtle, and it has now become Japan’s finest quality newspaper.
However, given that it is a large organization, it is only natural that not every part of it is one hundred percent admirable.
The foreign influence operations of the former Soviet Union, particularly those directed against Japan, were brought into the full light of day by the publication of the Mitrokhin Archive and by Levchenko’s testimony.
It was also revealed that Soviet operations had reached every national newspaper in Japan.
The Sankei Shimbun was no exception.
It was revealed that a journalist or editorial writer surnamed Yamane, like journalists and editorial writers at other national newspapers, had been a Soviet agent.
The Korean Peninsula and China are the world’s only states that are openly hostile toward Japan, and they are countries of “bottomless evil” and “plausible-sounding lies.”
They demonstrate that nature without restraint by continuing to subject their children to anti-Japanese education.
Their actual condition is that of Nazi states—that is, totalitarian states.
They incite hostility toward Japan in order to preserve public loyalty to their governments.
This is not merely a question of whether a government’s approval rating rises or falls, as Kan Kimura suggests.
The very foundation of the postwar South Korean state rests upon inciting hatred of another people in order to create loyalty toward the government, while filling its Constitution and textbooks with a false version of history.
North Korea is no different in this respect and, in addition, is the worst cartoon state of the modern age.
This Korean Peninsula lies directly beside Japan.
China is exactly the same.
These are not highly developed modern states such as France and Poland are in relation to Germany.
As Professor Hiroshi Furuta of the University of Tsukuba, the world’s foremost authority on the Korean Peninsula, has defined them, Japan has ancient despotic states as its neighbors.
How can Japan break free from this misfortune?
The Japanese people have now become profoundly aware of this reality and feel unprecedented anger toward them.
Naturally, the Japanese people will never again forgive the Asahi Shimbun, which, incredibly, continued to publish fabricated articles that gave such countries material with which to attack Japan.
In South Korea, the woman who founded the former Korean Council—clearly a North Korean spy—has carried out activities designed to inflame hostility toward Japan and extract vast sums of money from it.
These anti-Japanese propaganda campaigns have been conducted throughout the world, including in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the United Nations.
They represent the lowest and most disgraceful spectacle imaginable.
It is no exaggeration to say that no greater evil exists in this world.
This is a group that embodies the worst stupidity and anti-intellectualism.
It spreads anti-Japanese propaganda throughout the world and attempts to extract unlimited amounts of money from Japan.
Kan Kimura of Kobe University and a certain journalist at the Sankei Shimbun were defending the conduct of this evil group.
This is something I have felt for a long time.
There is a certain half-finished quality about Kobe University, situated below Kyoto University and Osaka University.
It goes without saying that the most outstanding students in the Kyoto–Osaka–Kobe region generally go to Kyoto University or Osaka University.
There are, of course, exceptions.
Truly brilliant and admirable people exist even if they did not attend Kyoto University or Osaka University.
Two graduates of Kwansei Gakuin University are my lifelong best friends.
I regard that fact as one of the great sources of pride in my life.
I also respect and love them from the bottom of my heart.
Nevertheless, because of Kobe University’s ambiguous and half-finished position as a national university, I have always been unable to dispel my distrust of it.
When the full extent of the operations conducted against Japan by the Korean Peninsula and China is finally revealed, will the true identities of the people whom I have long regarded with suspicion also come to light?