Abstract
This thesis aim to shed light on how the global MeToo-movement was received, perceived and reported by the media in South Korea and Japan, and how this affected the individual countries. The use of MeToo flourished in South Korea, and the media were consistently following all the high profile cases. In contrast, only a handful of MeToo-stories have breached the news media in Japan. By using online newspapers, three Korean and two Japanese MeToo stories have been retold by compiling information from articles, and then analyzed and compared. The political shift in South Korea made it possible for the MeToo-movement to gain support from the top, as President Moon early on openly declared his support. On the other hand, the unchallenged conservative ruling party in Japan has stayed quiet on the topic of MeToo and sexual harassment, even when their own politicians were involved, and the movement were left struggling at a grassroots level. This political difference is reflected in the freedom of press that has significantly improved since the Moon presidency started, while Prime Minister Abe’s government has been putting more pressure on the media not to write about topics that does not benefit the country. Nonetheless, it is still too early to see the long-term results of the movement, and despite the excessive coverage by the media in South Korea, recent surveys shows that not much has changed in the workforce yet, calling for the question if the result of the movement really differed that much in the neighboring countries.