is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese author who used to write under the pen name . His primary area of writing is on Korean culture; he has also published instructional books for Korean learners of Japanese.

Early life and education

Mizuno was born 1968 in Muroran

Muroran, Hokkaido

is a city and port located in Iburi, Hokkaidō, Japan. It is the capital city of Iburi Subprefecture.As of 2008, the city has an estimated population of 96,724 and a density of 1,210 people per km². The total area is 80.65 km².- History :...

, Hokkaidō

Hokkaido

, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...

. By his own testimony, he became interested in Korea as a middle school student, after seeing hangul

Hangul

Hangul,Pronounced or ; Korean: 한글 Hangeul/Han'gŭl or 조선글 Chosŏn'gŭl/Joseongeul the Korean alphabet, is the native alphabet of the Korean language. It is a separate script from Hanja, the logographic Chinese characters which are also sometimes used to write Korean...

 characters for the first time. He attended Noboribetsu

Noboribetsu, Hokkaido

is a city in Iburi subprefecture, Hokkaidō, Japan. Part of Shikotsu-Toya National Park, it is southwest of Sapporo, west of Tomakomai and northeast of Hakodate. The name, Noboribetsu, derives from an Ainu word, nupur-pet, which means dark-coloured river....

 South High School and then Nara Prefecture

Nara Prefecture

is a prefecture in the Kansai region on Honshū Island, Japan. The capital is the city of Nara.-History:The present-day Nara Prefecture was created in 1887, making it independent of Osaka Prefecture....

's Tenri University

Tenri University

is a Japanese private university in Tenri, Nara Prefecture, an independent part of the secular mission of Tenrikyo. It was established in February 1925 as the coeducational , enrolling 104 students, and was reorganised as a university in April 1949...

, where he majored in Korean language

Korean language

Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...

; in 1990, he entered into a Ph.D. programme in Korean literature

Korean literature

Korean literature is the body of literature produced in Korea or by Korean writers. For much of its 3,000 years of literature history, it was written both in Hanja and in Korean, first using the transcription systems idu and gugyeol, and finally using the Korean script Hangul. It is commonly...

 at Chonnam National University

Chonnam National University

Chonnam National University is a South Korean university located in the metropolitan city of Gwangju which lies in the middle of South Jeolla or Jeonnam province, for which the school is named in the Southwest of the country...

 in Gwangju

Gwangju

Gwangju is the sixth largest city in South Korea. It is a designated metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home Minister...

, South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

. After completing his dissertation, he remained at the same university, where he took up a post as a lecturer in 1995.

Life in South Korea

Mizuno became well-known in South Korea for his command of Jeolla dialect

Jeolla dialect

Jeolla dialect is used in the Jeolla region of South Korea, including the city of Gwangju.Along with Chungcheong dialect, it is considered non-standard by some Koreans. Perhaps the most obvious difference comes from common verb endings...

 and made frequent television and lecture appearances, often speaking about Japanese-Korean relations

Japan-Korea relations

Korea-Japan relations are the relations between Korea and Japan. In a modern context, these relations pertain to three states: Japan, North Korea, and South Korea. Japan and Korea have had cultural interactions for over a thousand years and direct political contact almost as long...

 and the influence of Korea on ancient Japan; he was described as one of the most well-known foreigners in South Korea. His pen name was known to the Korean media, and it had been reported as early as 2001 that he had published books critical of Korea, such as his 1996 How to write anti-Japanese novels in Korea or his 2001 Outbreak of a Korea-Japan War?, which he acknowledged took an aggressive approach to their subjects and could be offensive to Koreans; however, he retained popularity as a commentator. He stated that his goal in writing was to help both Japanese and Koreans overcome their historical conflict and develop closer relations. While living there, he married a Korean woman from Jeollabuk-do

Jeollabuk-do

Jeollabuk-do is a province in the southwest of South Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the northern half of the former Jeolla province, and remained a province of Korea until the country's division in 1945, then became part of South Korea...

, with whom he had three sons. In total, he lived in South Korea for 15 years.

Return to Japan

In June 2005, South Korean newspaper Dong-A Ilbo

Dong-a Ilbo

The Dong-a Ilbo is one of three major South Korean newspapers with over 2 million daily circulation...

reported more extensively on the books and essays he had submitted under his pen name Nohira, including publications in rightist

Uyoku dantai

Uyoku dantai are Japanese nationalist right-wing groups.In 1996, the National Police Agency estimated that there are over 1000 right wing groups in Japan with about 100,000 members in total.-Tennō period:...

 magazines; many of the works under his pen name were described as "degrading" to Korea, in contrast to those he wrote under his real name. One of the main targets of criticism was his 2002 book Koreans' false history of Japan. A few months later, he returned to Japan to take up a post as a lecturer in Korean language at the Hokkai School of Commerce

Hokkai School of Commerce

is a private university in Toyohira-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. It was originally set up in 1977 as the Commerce Faculty of the Kitami campus of Hokkai Gakuen University; it was spun off as a separate university in April 2006, at which point it moved to Sapporo...

 in Sapporo.

General

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Language instruction

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