North or South, they root for Korea: In Japan, soccer fans cast aside ideology, division

Two Korean Japanese men came to root for North Korea at Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa in Japan during the Asian Games women's football match. On Sept. 21, 2026. (Kim Chang-keum/Hankyoreh)

Ethnic Koreans in Japan who gathered at Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa in Fukuroi, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Monday expressed a range of views while watching the women’s soccer teams of the two Koreas face off in the third Group F match at this year’s Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, with some rooting for the DPRK, others ready to applaud either side, and one person saying the result mattered less than seeing the players stay safe.

Members of Chongryon, also known as the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, performed organized cheering for the North wearing red uniforms and even group T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Certain victory, DPRK.”

A third-generation Korean Japanese man who traveled from Tokyo with his college-aged son on the high-speed rail Shinkansen said with a hearty laugh, “Over 1,000 supporters are coming. I think the DPRK will win 3-0.”

His son, who had played rugby, smiled sheepishly with a look seemingly saying, “Not sure about that.”

One Korean Japanese man brought a traditional drum to cheer on North Korea. (Kim Chang-keum/Hankyoreh)

Fans also brought large drums to cheer for the North. A young man with a big smile said, “I brought five large drums to make sure they hear us cheering. The sound of these drums will give the players strength.”

A woman was elegantly dressed in a traditional Korean hanbok jacket, while her husband wore a T-shirt inscribed with “COREA.” Having driven about three hours from neighboring Shiga Prefecture, the wife had a South Korean passport and her spouse a North Korean one.

Standing so close together so as to be inseparable, the couple said they “loved unification” when asked what side they were rooting for. 

What if South Korea scored a goal? They said, “We’d of course applaud and cheer them on.”

About 70 Korean Japanese cheered for the South Korean team, but showed no intent to distinguish between either Korea in their support. Kim Dal-beom, a Tokyo-based business owner, said, “Does winning matter? I just want our girls to play hard and avoid injury.”

A woman who visited the stadium with her daughter — both wearing T-shirts inscribed with “Certain victory, DPRK” — described the thrill of watching on TV Sunday night South Korea’s gold medal-clinching win over Japan in the men’s basketball final. “South Korea played great and I cheered them with all my heart,” she said. “What matters is our people, not the division between South and North.”

A couple, the woman with South Korean citizenship and the man with North Korean citizenship, came to support both teams. (Kim Chang-keum/Hankyoreh)

The crowd at the soccer game numbered just 202 spectators at the 50,000-capacity stadium. Instead of Japanese fans, most of the spectators were Korean Japanese who cheered for both teams. 

Why did they travel long distances from places like Tokyo, Shiga Prefecture and Nagoya to see the match? It seems the reason stemmed from their shared Korean heritage.