Japan's Miyazaki Prefecture is making utmost efforts to benefit from the Korean Wave, or Korean pop culture craze, sweeping the Asian region. The prefecture is trying to attract Korean film and TV program production companies to the region as a way to promote its own tourism industry.
As part of its efforts, the prefecture on the island of Kyushu has decided to establish a film committee that will be in charge of the project, publish a guidebook entitled "Miyazaki LocaNavi"--a word combining "location" and "navigation"--which introduces locations where movies and dramas were shot in the prefecture, and opening a website in Korean and Chinese as well as Japanese.
The prefecture government believes that its efforts will achieve the effect of "killing two birds with one stone" because attracting Korean drama and film production companies will eventually increase the number of tourists who want to see filming locations.
Last year, the KBS drama "Wedding" filmed a scene in Miyazaki where a leading character played by Ryoo Si-won encountered his childhood friend, played by Myeong Se-bin, while on his honeymoon with his bride, played by Jang Nara. To shoot the scene, some 30 staff and cast members stayed there for 10 days. In addition, when the news about the shoot spread, many tourists from Korea, China and Japan began visiting the location.
KBS 2TV's entertainment program "Super TV Happy Sunday" was also filmed in Miyazaki last year.
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