Japanese television station Fuji TV was the object of public scorn after it made a grave editing error on a recent airing of 'Akira Ikegami's Urgent Special.'
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The episode containing the error, which aired in June, featured a segment on Korea and the strained Japan-Korea relations.
According to the corresponding segment video which was uploaded online, one Korean female student can be heard saying, "[Korea's] culture is really diverse. A lot of foreigners seem to visit [our country]." However, the subtitles for that particular part related an entirely different tale. The Japanese subtitles read, "I hate [Japan]. Because they tormented Korea." Another Korean, a man in his 30's, was also subject to erroneous editing which warped his dialogue to make it sound as if he "hated" Japan. In actuality, the man had simply disapproved of Japan's refusal to take responsibility for its actions during the war. Subsequent this controversial broadcast, many Japanese internet media sites such as 'BUZZAP!' laid down an invective towards Fuji TV, denouncing the station's mistake in heavily critical articles. 'BUZZAP!' pointed out that the show's commentator and noted journalist, Akira Ikegami, has a "duty to provide a clear explanation" for the broadcast error.
In response to this outcry, Fuji TV stepped forward and released a statement asserting that the subtitles were errors purely human in nature. The station said, "We aired these inaccurate clips because of a mix-up during the editing process as well as our failure to check the final footage sufficiently." Fuji TV further explained that the Koreans who were interviewed indeed spoke of their dislike of Japan; the clips and the subtitles just weren't appropriately synced due to an editing error, which slanted the original intended message.
Amidst this controversy, it still isn't clear whether Fuji TV mistakenly mismatched the clips and the subtitles or if it was an intentionally malicious act by the station to fan the flames of the already tense relations between Korea and Japan. Whatever the case may be, Fuji TV has since then apologized for its errors.
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