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The South Korean Embassy in Tokyo

A threatening letter containing a bullet was delivered to the South Korean Embassy to Tokyo, in the city’s Minato Ward.

On Sept. 3, the South Korean embassy broke the news about the letter, which it said had been delivered on Aug. 27.

“I’m hunting Koreans,” the writer of the letter reportedly said, adding that he or she has “several rifles.” The letter, which was unsigned, also included the demand for Koreans to “get out.”

The letter didn’t specifically mention the historical issues behind the recent quarrel between South Korea and Japan, such as forced labor during the colonial occupation or the “comfort women” system of sexual servitude.

“The Japanese police collected the bullet, but the sender of the letter hasn’t been arrested yet,” the embassy said.

On Sept. 1, a member of a right wing organization in his 60s damaged the mailbox at the embassy and was immediately arrested by a Japanese police officer on security duty. The same mailbox had already been dented when a Japanese man in his 20s punched it back in March.

The deterioration in South Korea-Japan relations is leading to more anti-Korean stories in the Japanese media. Shukan Post, a Japanese weekly tabloid, recently ran a special feature called “Goodbye to that annoying neighbor: we don’t need Korea.” The feature included inflammatory phrases such as “we don’t hate Korea, we just want to cut ties,” “pulling out of GSOMIA creates a crisis on the Korean Peninsula,” and “Koreans have a disease: they can’t keep their anger in check.”

GSOMIA, short for the General Security of Military Information Agreement, is a military intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan that South Korea recently announced it would not renew.

After reading the feature, novelist Ushio Fukazawa announced that she was halting a series of essays she’s been running in the tabloid and said the feature was “more of a curse than criticism.” Philosopher Tasuru Uchida also posted on social media that he wouldn’t work for Shogakukan again, referring to the tabloid’s publisher.

Bowing to intense criticism, the editorial staff of the Shukan Post apologized on Sept. 2, though it was unclear to whom they were apologizing. “The idea was to consider a number of scenarios in the confusing relations between Japan and South Korea, but we’ve received a lot of criticism.” A string of Japanese magazines have printed features that play up the anti-Korean mood.

By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent

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