'National Team Skater Lee Sang-hwa's' Husband Gangnam Promoting Right-Wing Japanese Actor Sparks Outcry in Gangnam Over 'Sneaky' Deletion [Star Issue]

*This content was translated by AI.

Broadcast personality Gangnam, husband of speed skating national team member Lee Sang-hwa, faced public backlash after releasing content featuring him alongside Japanese actor Fukushi Sota. Fukushi Sota is an actor who has been embroiled in right-wing controversies.

On the 21st, Gangnam posted a photo with Fukushi Sota on his social media, writing, "Fukushi Sota studies hard and speaks Korean better than I do. He's truly smart and kind! Please support him."

Prior to this, on the 20th, he uploaded a video featuring Fukushi Sota as a guest on his YouTube channel 'Neighborhood Friend Gangnami,' which has 1.54 million subscribers.

However, immediately after the content was released, netizens launched fierce criticism. This is because Fukushi Sota had previously been involved in controversy over right-wing suspicions. He appeared on Fuji TV's documentary "Teach Us About War" in 2015, which faced criticism for glorifying the Imperial Japanese Army. At that time, Fukushi Sota revealed that his grandfather was a candidate for a kamikaze special attack unit who had undergone training, shedding tears as he said, "I respect my grandfather. Thanks to them, we exist today." Kamikaze refers to the suicide attack units operated by the Japanese military in the final stages of the Pacific War to attack Allied fleets. It is considered one of the symbols of Japanese imperialism and aggressive war.

As a result, Fukushi Sota's past actions were brought back into focus, leading to continued criticism that his appearance was inappropriate. Moreover, the timing of the release shortly after Liberation Day, combined with Gangnam promoting an actor involved in right-wing controversies despite being married to a former national team athlete, sparked public outrage.

Ultimately, Gangnam and the production team behind his YouTube channel deleted the problematic posts. However, since they were removed without any explanation or apology, criticism has intensified. Netizens expressed anger with comments such as: "No apology statement was posted," "Gangnam and the YouTube production team seem to be distracted by singing Japanese songs, acting as if nothing happened," "Pretending nothing happened is very inappropriate," "His wife is a national athlete; shouldn't he at least issue an apology?" "I viewed him positively, but I'm so disappointed," "As his popularity grew through Japanese content, the ratio of Japanese content has increased more than Gangnam himself," "Just deleting videos without apologizing isn't enough. Posting such content in August without any concern is really bad. He should stop the J-Pop project too," and "If this is how he acts, why did he naturalize?"

Meanwhile, Gangnam was born to a Korean mother and a Japanese father. He married Lee Sang-hwa in 2019 and passed the naturalization exam in 2022, acquiring South Korean citizenship from Japanese nationality.

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*This content was translated by AI.