A YouTuber, previously arrested in Japan for causing public disturbances, has recently been spotted in South Korea engaging in controversial behavior.
According to a report from JTBC on October 7, streamer Johnny Somali, active on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok, has sparked controversy in South Korea. His actions include kissing the “Statue of Peace,” a symbol of the Comfort Women, and playing inappropriate sounds in public spaces.
Johnny Somali, who recently arrived in South Korea, has been live-streaming his activities across various locations in Seoul. In one instance, he was seen sitting next to the “Comfort Women” statue and kissing its cheek.
Comfort women were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II.
During the livestream, he claimed, “Japan hates these things. I love Korea, and everything that I did in Japan was for Korean and Chinese people.”
In another incident, he played explicit sounds on a subway, pretending it was an accident, and appeared embarrassed when the sounds were heard. He was also reportedly ejected from a bus for loudly playing North Korean music and was confronted by police for causing a disturbance at an amusement park.
This is not the first time Johnny Somali has stirred controversy. He gained notoriety in Japan for similar behavior, including playing explicit audio on a train, which led to his arrest for trespassing.
Additionally, during his visit to Japan in May last year, coinciding with the G7 summit, he made offensive remarks on a subway, including threatening to “drop another atomic bomb.” He also harassed a Japanese passenger, asking, “Do you know where Hiroshima and Nagasaki are? Pearl Harbor?”
The passenger, visibly uncomfortable, remained silent while Johnny Somali continued making racially charged comments and filming other passengers without their consent.
During the incident, a Korean-American man intervened, telling Johnny Somali to stop, saying, “You represent America. If you do this, people from other countries won’t respect Americans.”
This intervention gained widespread attention, especially after it was shared on Reddit, where many American users condemned Johnny Somali’s actions, clarifying that “he’s not even an American” and praised the Korean-American man for his calm response.
According to the Asian-American media outlet NextShark, Johnny Somali, who identifies himself as a “Somalian Pirate” on his YouTube channel, is believed to be of Somali descent. His channel currently has 18,300 subscribers.
BY YOUNGNAM KIM [kim.youngnam@koreadaily.com]
