New Year’s Without K-Pop?

However, there is already some controversy in the press over whether K-pop artists will be invited this year.

Over the summer a diplomatic row developed between Japan and South Korea over which country has sovereignty over a rocky outcropping located in the seas between the two countries.

Last week a Japanese tabloid reported that NHK would be “stricter” in its selection of K-pop artists this year, a sentiment that the Korean press picked up and interpreted as meaning that K-pop will actually be “banned” from the show.

The tabloid quoted the president of NHK at a Sept. 6 press conference, where he said that a statement by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak demanding an apology from the Japanese emperor over Japan’s colonization of the peninsula “has created concern over whether Korean artists will be invited to perform, due to growing animosity from [Japanese] viewers.”

Last year, three major K-pop acts performed on the New Year’s program, which is called Kohaku Utagassen (“Red-White Song Contest”).

Music insiders have noted to reporters that if NHK does decide to exclude Korean acts (the roster of performers will be announced in November) it will probably have more to do with taking advantage of Japanese pride than with denigrating Korean artists.

Japan took home more medals at this year’s London Olympics than expected and this, combined with the various territorial disputes that have flared up anew this year, has led to stronger patriotic feelings that NHK feels obligated to acknowledge.

In any event, even in Korea entertainment professionals say they are anxious about Korean singers who profess their own patriotism so vocally.

If NHK invited such singers to its program it would automatically be politicizing the show, something they say should be avoided.