Dr. Jayson Chun, History Professor and Asian Studies Certificate Director with the Humanities Division at the University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu, over the summer published an article in a major foreign policy journal, was interviewed for a piece in a Korean newspaper, and delivered a nationwide online lecture.
Chun’s article, “When Cultural Exchanges Go Awry: Korea-Japan Relations and Popular Culture,” was published in the Summer 2025 edition of the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (GJIA), the flagship academic publication of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University based in Washington, D.C. GJIA publishes original, policy-oriented analyses by scholars and practitioners — ranging from the mainstream to the underrepresented, according to its website.
Chun said his article shows that things like K-pop and pop culture go beyond entertainment, and actually can affect relationships between countries, politics, and diplomacy.
“The article tells how Korean pop stars on Japan’s biggest New Year’s TV show in 2011 triggered a nationalist backlash that Japanese tv stations downplayed K-pop broadcasts for years, until K-pop companies adapted by including Japanese members in their groups to win back audiences,” Chun said. “It shows that when countries have political tensions, even music can become controversial, but creative industries can overcome these barriers by making their content more international and inclusive.”
Chun was also interviewed for the article, “Are Korea, Japan Culturally Getting Closer?” published in the Aug. 12 issue of The Korea Times, South Korea’s oldest English-language daily newspaper, founded in 1950.
Chun contributed his knowledge and expertise to this article about the growing cultural ties between Korea and Japan on the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese rule, and provided a valuable perspective as an American academic observer, offering an outside view on Korea-Japan cultural relations.
“I pointed out that popular culture is usually the first place that people from different nations meet each other, and highlighted the cooperative message sent by K-pop groups like TWICE and Le Sserafim, which include both Japanese and Korean members,” Chun said.
Additionally this summer, Chun delivered a nationwide online lecture called “From Spirited Away to Death Note: Kami in Popular Anime” as part of a four-part series on Japanese spirituality organized by the Japan Foundation Los Angeles.
“I examined how anime brings Japan’s ancient spiritual traditions to life for global audiences, looking at examples from ‘Spirited Away’ to the shinigami realm of ‘Death Note,’ ” Chun said. “I explored how traditional Japanese beliefs about divine spirits (called ‘kami’) are reimagined in modern anime storytelling.”