So what’s the deal with Korea these days?

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Respectfully dude. I think this video is out of your scope of experience. Stay in your lane.

Is SK really the culture country of the 2020s? Or are you just saying that? How have they impacted world culture outside of a few viral videos in the 2010s?

I’m glad you enjoyed your trip, but you’re grossly exaggerating the influence of this American puppet state

Uh, bit of a misinfo there. Hangul has become widespread in the peninsula already around the 18th century. Basically everyone who was ever taught to read and write could use it, including women and some cases of commoners, and usually quite a bit of non-official documents, transcripts and correspondences used Hangul even in the upper class. There's private letters written in Hangul by kings. Husbands of the upper class would often write letters to their wives in Hangul, from which we can see the upper class women may not have been educated enough to know "proper" Chinese, but they knew Hangul, hecne the husbands sending letters in Hangul.

Chinese characters were used as the "official language" and the "cultural elite" level — think how Medieval people would routinely speak and write documents in Latin, or how Romans use Greek as the "language of the elite", despite all of them having their own lagnuage. Much the same, Chinese was an "administrative", "official," "judicial" language — but the people had their own language. Hangul. was an alphabet tailored for that Korean language, which is why it could spread so fast.

I really enjoyed your take, especially the historical ones, but you were there for such a short time to really understand the differences between the two countries, and they are really different. I'm an American living in Korea, 10 years, and by now know the differences and they are not alike at all. On a scale of 10 it would be around 3/10. Just like how Canada is nothing like the US.

Canada of Japan? Such an otaku. You do know that much of Japanese culture came from Korea and China. Even Japanese imperial family is part Korean from Beakje kingdom.
Also Korean cultural influences has surpassed Japan's. Look at all the Korean movies, dramas, music worldwide winning Oscars, Grammys,Emmys, Tonys, etc.
Trends from Korea are followed by Japanese six month later. Korean companies have outcompeted Japanese firms to dominate many of the industries Japan used to dominate. SK is ranked top three each year on the innovation index. Japanese companies failed to adapt to the global market. Japanese economy has been stagnated for the past 30 years. Playing catch up on digitalization.
Japan is not even a true democracy. Same party jas been in power since world war two. They have never jailed any of their corrupt prime ministers unlike South Korea. Koreans protest and sent corrupt ex presidents and sitting president to prison.

I truly love cultures around the world. Started as a kid with National Geographic and thankfully never lost it 🙂 Truly appreciate these JJ but had to come back after a bit because speaking of South Korea, I have been playing Crimson Desert and have lost my mind about this game which was created by the South Korean company Pearl Abyss 🙂 Just wanted to share as it has been a really successful video game selling like 5 million copies in maybe a month. Appreciate you JJ!!

Your narrative clearly shows a pro-Japanese bias, revealing that you are just another American viewing Korea through a distorted, Japan-centric lens

As a Korean, it's very interesting to hear non-Korean's perspective when it comes to my country. I'd like to add a bit more context to your top focuses:

(1) Japan – It is often said among Koreans, Japan is a "close yet far country." A long-standing sensitive topic but one that is evolving as time goes on. Most Koreans, especially the younger generations, have a favorable opinion of Japan. The same goes for the Japanese in terms of their opinion of South Korea. It's the older generations on both sides that have staunch perspectives that shaped society post colonization. These days in South Korea’s highly polarized political environment, historical and diplomatic tensions with Japan are frequently brought to the forefront of public discourse during periods of domestic political pressure. The Left typically amplifies for political advantage, particularly when their approval ratings decline (to your point, about bringing nationalistic sentiment).
(2) Language – Hangul is definitely a proud part of Korean history. One that brings a notion of independence to the country, not just from Japan but also from China. Your observation on the use of Hanja in everyday setting is on point.
(3) Beauty – I see this as a growing pain in Korean society. There is an obsession that's largely negatively affecting Koreans as a whole due to various pressures that stem from these "standards of beauty." One in which is slowly but surely improving, but the big issue is the media (esp. dramas). One fact check I'd like to bring up is that there's been a huge increase in foreigners coming to South Korea to get plastic surgery. The number of Koreans getting is slowly decreasing but my friend who works at one of the top Gangnam clinics confirmed many Chinese and Southeast Asians (Thai, Vietnamese, Taiwanese) come to get work done.
(4) Partition/Dictatorship – Let's not forget. The peninsula is still technically at war. The war is NOT over. The current thriving nation that is the Republic of Korea today is thanks to the sacrifices of the brave soldiers from all over the world who fought to protect freedom and democracy. Otherwise, if the CCP/NK had taken over – the country would NOT be where it is today.

If the Japanese was the colonizer from the past the modern day anti-state force is the CCP. That is why you saw a lot of the right-wing rallies during your time in South Korea and that is why the prior President Yoon had declared martial law (which btw, nothing happened). No one got hurt. I don't agree with the declaration but I understand WHY he did it. You'd have to dig deeper into what's happening in Korean society right now to fully comprehend his rationale.

You guys need to know there was a Korean version of "I have a dream" by an independence movement activist, Kim Goo, under the Japanese imperialism. He was one of the founding fathers of modern Korea.

He wrote in his famous "Diary" in 1942.

​"I desire my nation to be the most beautiful nation in the world. I do not want it to be the most powerful or wealthiest nation.
​Because I have felt the pain of being invaded by others, I do not want my nation to invade others. It is sufficient if our wealth is enough to enrich our lives, and our strength is enough to repel the invasions of others.
​*The only thing I desire to possess in infinite measure is the power of a high culture.*
​This is because the power of culture makes us happy ourselves and, furthermore, brings happiness to others. *I wish for our nation not to be a nation that merely imitates others, but to become the source, the goal, and the model of such a high and new culture.*
​Thus, I wish for **true world peace to be realized in the world through our nation.**"

If you exclude language, Austria is more similar to Slovenia than Germany.

JJ….I say this very sincerely.

You are the rare person that looks much better with glasses. If you have anxiety that they make you look older or overly academic, then silence those.

You should make the glasses part of your look.

17:16 Again you’re only focusing on the superficial. PS became popular as South Korea became ultra competitive in almost every aspect of life, not so much celebrities (every developed country has them). For example, you are pretty much required to submit a photo of yourself in a job application. Companies want to hire people who are well groomed and have a certain look. And contrary to popular belief, Koreans do not want to look “white” as they have their own beauty standards different than western culture.

3:30 South Korea is to Japan as Canada is to the US? Poor analogy. Completely different language, writing system, food, music (traditional music), die hard enemies in the past, cultural past, political adversaries currently, etc. And Korea doesn’t have tentacle hentai porn.😂 Koreans are a lot more outspoken than Japanese. The only reason Korea is superficially similar to Japan is because it brutally colonized Korea and tried to erase Korean culture (banning Korean language, writing, martial arts, names, etc).

한국인과 일본인은 많이다른데?????????????? 대체 뭘 보고 비슷하다는거지?? 미국이랑 러시아랑 같은 피부색이니깐 비슷하겠네?

한국 일본을 독일과 영국으로 비유하는것이 옳습니다. 일본이라는 국가의 근본은 고대 한국에서 섬으로 건너간 사람들이 탄생시킨 국가이기 때문입니다. 독일에게 온갖 규제와 억압을 하면서도 자신은 많은 이득을 얻은 부분과 동쪽에서의 침략을 방어해주고 영국을 안전하게 지켜준 역사까지 매우 흡사합니다.

6:29 Korea and Japan do not have cultural roots in China. You are making exactly the same mistake as the ancient Greeks who referred to the entire eastern Aegean Sea as Asia.