Why was Feminism more successful in Korea compared to Japan or China?

These three places are considered by many to be very misogynist. One of the reasons is because these are Confucian societies. Some feminists criticize Confucian's teachings because they believe that Confucianism is inherently sexist.

From the outside looking in, a lot of people view Korea as one of the worst countries in the world for women. But when doing some research, Korea surprisingly has went through significant growth in the improvement in women's rights. This is very baffling because many see Korea as being very misogynist and hierarchical even compared to Japan or China. Comparing Korea even 10 or 20 years ago to now reveals how much change Korea has went through in this time period.

Korea was ranked less sexist than Asian countries like Japan and China in all four studies according to the Gender Inequality Index 2022, Social Institutions and Gender Index 2023, Women, Business and the Law 2024 Report, and the Global Gender Gap Index 2024.

Korea also had a MeToo movement that was successful because Korea didn't censor women's stories and gave them a platform unlike China or Japan. "South Korea is the exception, as the national TV channel JTBC broadcasted testimonies and questioned the system, thereby lending more credibility to the movement and encouraging women to speak up about their experiences[18]. This could explain why, out of the three countries, South Korea is the one where #MeToo had the greatest impact, with several popular political figures prosecuted for harassment and several demonstrations in August 2018 bringing together thousands of women[19]."

This MeToo movement led to laws being made in Korea. "South Korean feminist activists were more successful, with more than 145 new bills (called the “MeToo bills”) proposed to the Assembly. Only 29 were adopted in 2019[29], some about sexual harassment in the workplace and others about online violence."

Japanese feminists and Chinese feminists are inspired by Korean feminism:

Japanese feminist Minori Kitahara says that she is influenced by Korean feminism

Minori: "I was actually influenced by Korean feminism, but it was during the Me Too movement that I realized that I hadn’t actually created a movement with the public in Japan." 일본의 미투(#MeToo)는 이렇게 시작됐다 - 일다

Minori: "I'm very pleased. South Korea is now a country that is ahead of Japan's youth. Music, literature, feminism. It's a culturally advanced out country, Korea. There are no books about feminism in Japan, but I think it is a book that Japanese publishers avoid." 일본의 미투(#MeToo)는 이렇게 시작됐다 - 일다

Chinese feminists are also inspired by Korean feminism: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-south-korea-china-fertility-feminism-birth-rate/ https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23306343.2023.2241126

The reasoning might be that Korea has more Western influence than Japan or China. They seem to have some of the highest approval rating of US influence compared to other Asian countries. Thus, they would be more ready to adopt more Western ideals such as Feminism. Or it could be that Koreans are more prone to protest and speak out compared to China or Japan. This is seen by the constant amount of protests that seem to be apart of Korean culture at this point.