A situation I encountered recently on Japanese television was quite baffling.

I was flipping through channels when a familiar logo caught my eye: Samsung’s blue oval. I was curious, so I decided to watch TV Tokyo. 

And was I in for a big surprise.

I had stumbled upon a five-part documentary about how utterly backward Korea was, in particular, Korean firms and the economy.

The broadcaster had managed to get their hands on tapes of Samsung shareholder meetings. The part I caught was about Samsung’s sale of Samsung Techwin to Hanwha Group. Unhappy Samsung employees were seen accusing the firm of lacking corporate scruples. In between their testimonials were shots of demonstrations against Samsung in front of the company headquarters in Seoul.

In short, anything damaging about Samsung was included. And the program had secured several “experts” to talk about just how corrupt the company was, and how it lacked any kind of support and compassion for its employees.

Another segment was on Korea’s slumping economy. And here I learned about some very strange new things that were happening in my own country.

According to TV Tokyo, almost 30 percent of South Koreans were changing their names in order to turn their businesses around. Amazing. Anyone who actually did this, please email me.

Other market watchers talked about how young South Koreans can’t get a job.

During the past year I’ve been in Tokyo, I’ve noticed that the media loves it when Korea’s reputation is compromised.

TV Tokyo may be unfamiliar to some, but it’s owned by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the world’s largest financial newspaper, according to many accounts.

I was bewildered why such a major media company would allow its affiliate to air such material. And why the Japanese media actually feels the need to bash a country that’s not up to its level. 

In my view, such actions only serve to instill bad feelings among both Japanese and Korean people.

Last week, I met an official of the Japanese government. He expressed regret that at times, the Korean journalists residing in Japan would frequently take heed of only the opinions raised by the Korean Embassy.

I agreed with him. And I understood the situation since I too have witnessed how the foreign press is treated in Korea. With courtesy, but never offered any real access.

But in the end, it all boils down to the frayed Japan-Korea ties.

Japan says it’s time to move on. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently reiterated that the current Japanese generation have nothing to do with past war crimes.

But when you have Japanese broadcasters going out of their way to damage Korea’s reputation, it’s hard to accept anything Japanese officials have to say. 

I also find it difficult to accept the argument about freedom of press. It was not too long ago that the Japanese government came under fire for allegedly twisting the arms of a broadcaster to fire a guest who was too outspoken in denouncing the prime minister. If you’re curious, Google Shigeaki Koga and decide for yourself. 

Perhaps the Korean media also portrays Japan in a detrimental light.

But these days, there are more programs and articles about how advanced Japan is, and the miracles it worked to extricate itself from a two-decade long recession.

If there is any criticism, it’s concentrated on past colonial misdeeds and war crimes committed by Japan.

Criticism by the media can never be restricted, and it never should be. But there is a fine line between blind bashing and constructive criticism.

What I saw on TV Tokyo was far from the latter.

By Kim Ji-hyun

Kim Ji-hyun is The Korea Herald’s Tokyo correspondent. — Ed.