Japanese National Anthem Drowned Out By North Korean Boos
A week ago, I posted about how a small group of Japanese soccer fans would be traveling to Pyongyang. Here is the follow-up:
On Tuesday, the Japan national soccer team traveled to North Korea to play against the DPRK team in a World Cup qualifier match. Japan had already won enough games to qualify, and North Korea had already lost enough games to ruin its changes of qualifying. But, since it had been 20 years since the DPRK last hosted a match against Japan, it was an important match for the North Koreans.
The match ended in an upset: North Korean defeated Japan 1-0. It was Japan’s first loss in 15 matches.
Several explanations have been thrown around about why Japan lost. North Korea fielded its best players into the game, while Japan did not; it was the first time Japanese players had played on astroturf; the North Koreans had to win or they’d face punishment, and so on.
The Japanese media, however, seems to have given particular attention to the unfair treatment of Japanese fans and the rude behavior of North Korean fans. Here’s a short report from Fuji TV:
- The number of Japanese fans was restricted to about 100 people. The other 50,000 people were North Korean fans.
- When the Japanese national anthem was played, the North Koreans booed and shouted so much that one could barely even hear the melody. ( As a contrast, the TV program plays a clip from a DPRK-Japan match hosted in Japan, where Japanese spectators respectfully did not boo during the North Korean anthem.)
- Japanese fans were banned from bringing noise makers and flags into the stadium. The North Korean fans didn’t have any such restriction, and were making a huge amount of noise. They even spelled out giant slogans, as if it were the Mass Games.
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The situation is quite different from past incidents involving rude fans in South Korea or China. In those cases, authorities try to prevent rudeness. The same cannot be said for North Korea.
