Wikimedia Korea and Wikimedians of Japan User Group held 「日本・韓国 友好編集月間」”the Korea-Japan Friendship Editing Month” from March 23 to April 17, 2026. This was the second Korea-Japan editathon, following the event held during Asia Month in 2024.

Results report

It appears that 106 articles were created and edited by 29 participants. Thank you all for your participation.

When organizing events like this, I often worry about what will happen if there aren’t enough participants, but Wikipedians are so kind that they always end up joining in before I even realize it.

From the perspective of someone who reviews articles as part of the management team, there are benefits to this kind of opportunity, such as gaining knowledge that you wouldn’t otherwise learn, and satisfying your intellectual curiosity. It’s very educational and good. Wikipedia is a wonderful tool that allows you to share the knowledge you have and the things you want to know with people all over the world.

Article introduction

It would be impossible to introduce all the articles contributed to this editorthon, so I will only introduce the articles that were selected for the April Monthly New/Improved Article Award.

・「老松堂日本行録」…上野ハム…This article was written by Ueno Ham. It is said to be the oldest surviving travelogue of Japan written by a Korean. Apparently, it is something that is studied in high school Japanese history, and when a certain Wikipedian showed me a glossary of Japanese history terms, I was excitedly saying, “This is in there!”

・「朝鮮半島のヒスイ製勾玉」…のりまき…This article was written by Norimaki. I wonder if his experience writing about 「糸魚川のヒスイ」 “Itoigawa Jade” is proving useful. According to the article, it seems that these magatama (comma-shaped beads) may be of Itoigawa origin.

・「朝鮮半島の建築」…犭…This article was written by 犭. It’s surprisingly difficult to summarize such a broad topic into this size, so I think it’s truly impressive.

・「柳川一件」…This is an article I wrote. I will explain more later.

summary

When I first joined Wikipedia (around 2019), my impression was that the only editing event on Wikipedia was “Asia Month,” so I’m very happy to see an increase in these kinds of international events. I’m not very good at socializing, so I’ll leave the initiation of those kinds of conversations to those who are good at it, and I’ll focus on organizing these kinds of events.

Perhaps because of this connection, at the ESEAP Conference in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, I received a gift related to Korea (probably a notepad) from, 韓国のウィキメディアン, a Wikimedian in Korea, and I really like the design of it.

My own view

Now, this is my own view. I thought it would be strange to criticize the merits and demerits of other people’s articles without writing one myself, so I completely revised one of my own articles. It’s an article called「柳川一件」 “The Yanagawa Incident”

I usually write about the various feudal domains of the Edo period, so I didn’t want to stray too far from that if possible. However, 「対馬府中藩」”the Tsushima-Fuchu Domain”, which has some connection to Korea, was too heavy for me. While searching for a subject of just the right difficulty level, I came across this theme.

The Tsushima clan Sou, determined to repair the broken Korea-Japan relations caused by the Bunroku-Keicho War. But couldn’t find a way. They even resorted to tampering official documents to the capital in Japan(apparently they had been doing so regularly before), and managed to send a Korean envoy again, and restore diplomatic relations. However, one of their retainers (Yanagawa), who played a key role in this effort, became dissatisfied with his position and sought independence, ultimately taking the outrageous step of exposing the forgery of the official documents. This family feud is known as the “Yanagawa Incident.” It’s a very interesting story, and I enjoyed writing it. I was thinking, “These guys are tampering with official documents again (lol),” while I was writing it.

It was selected for 月間強化記事賞 “the Monthly Featured Article Award for April”. All’s well that ends well.