Analysis of Changing Aspect of Korean Cultural Contents in Japanese Textbooks

This study is aimed to track down on changes in the way Korean culture was covered in Japanese textbooks over the past three decades since the 1980s by reviewing `social studies` textbooks for the 6th graders in elementary school and `geology` textbooks for middle school, which are two compulsory subjects in Japanese schools where Korean cultures is the most often mentioned. To that end, Korean culture contents mentioned in the textbooks were classified into basic element, unique element and element that reflect the times, each of which was then divided into the categories of traditional & modern and surface & in-depth so as to see how each of the categories was presented. Japanese textbooks mentioned mostly surface and basic elements of Korean culture relating to food, clothing and shelter, such as Hanbok, Kimchi, Ondol, high-rise apartment and table manners, and also landscape of Seoul. Also, the kinds of contents which constantly appeared in the textbook were mostly basic elements including to food, clothing and shelter. Elements that reflect the times such as the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup and the Korean Wave were adequately covered as part of chronological explanations in the books. The aspect of Korean culture in Japanese textbooks seems to expand in depth and scope over the years. More recently, detailed explanations and visual images were increasingly used to introduce Korean culture.