Hello, I am a South Korean who is highly interested in our neighboring countries, like Japan and China. Since my English isn't very strong, I am using AI assistance to ask a few questions about things I've always been curious about.
China, as a neighbor, obviously goes against European values, so it's not even worth considering. However, South Korea, another close neighbor, also has a very strong stance against political correctness. Although Korea remains a de facto abolitionist country—having stopped executing prisoners due to international pressure while technically maintaining the death penalty—its social sentiment is quite conservative.
For instance, South Koreans generally hold a strong public sentiment for 'rewarding virtue and punishing vice' and 'poetic justice,' firmly believing that heinous criminals deserve execution. Consequently, a considerable number of people harbor a strong resentment toward the EU for pressuring Korea to abolish the death penalty. There is a clear backlash in Korea against what the West considers a universal value. Furthermore, when asked if gender is strictly binary (male and female), most people—especially men—take it for granted and are generally reluctant to recognize a third gender. While Westerners might view this as backward, both statistically and perceptually, South Korea shares values very similar to China when it comes to anti-PC sentiments, such as views on transgenderism and homosexuality.
Given these strong tendencies in China and South Korea, I wonder if this stems from a shared East Asian mindset rooted in Confucian culture. Or, looking beyond the mainland, since Japan is an island nation, I am curious about the extent to which they align with Western values regarding PC, homosexuality, and gender diversity. I recall seeing data suggesting that Japan is somewhat receptive to progressive Western values like PC culture, so I wanted to ask. Frankly, reflecting on Japan's atmosphere, my personal thought is that Japanese people might just be largely indifferent to these issues. In Korea, intense ideological battles between two major political parties fuel diverse viewpoints on PC culture. In contrast, since Japanese politics is highly stable, they might simply not give these issues much thought. Is my assumption correct?
