As Mutant Frog reports, Park Chong Ju, a zainichi Korean reporter for the Mainichi Shinbun, is under attack for apparently insulting the Japanese royal family:

Park was rude when questioning the necessity of spending millions of dollars to bring the emperor to the prefecture when govt finances are in trouble. He not only failed to use the proper honorifics when speaking of the emperor and his wife (calling the imperial couple “those two” rather than the formal 天皇皇后両陛下 “their majesties, the emperor and empress”), he questioned “the meaning” of an imperial visit, suggested that the money spent on the imperial visit could be used to help “the less fortunate,” and asked whether people would be forced to wave the Japanese flag, an act controversial among Japan’s left wing.

Personally, I’m not surprised by the reaction to the reporter’s remarks. Every single news report I have watched about the royal family uses a boatload of honorifics when referring to anything they do. It might seem ridiculous that calling them “those two” offends people, but when the media standard is to grovel before the majesty of the throne and honor it with flowery honorific language, it really shouldn’t be a shock that some people are offended. The fact that such anti-patriotic comments came from a “foreigner” certainly does not help the matter. It’s the perfect recipe for netizen rage.

Many of the most-viewed videos on YouTube today are variations of a video clip featuring the press conference. You can view it here. Check out the comments section of the video for some good ol’ Japanese/Korean/Chinese/American flame wars.