The collage has also been shared with similar claims on Facebook here, here And here.
The reports circulated a day before outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met current South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol for a final round of talkshoping to improve ties before he leaves office (archived link).
The two countries have long been at odds over historical issues related to Japan’s brutal occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, which included sexual slavery and forced labor.
Responses from several users showed that they believed the messages.
“What hypocrites, who dare to accuse others of being pro-Japanese, while they are the real slaves,” wrote one person.
“Typically left-wing, different inside and out,” said another.
Manipulated image
A reverse Google search turned up the original photo of Moon and his grandson that circulated on South Korean forums earlier in 2017 here, here And here (archived links here, here And here).
The card the couple held read: “A strong president, Moon Jae-in. Grandpa is the best.”
Below is a screenshot comparing the edited image in the collage (left) to the image shared in 2017 (right):
In the 2017 reports, the photo was attributed to a Democratic Party lawmaker Ki Dong-minwho campaigned with Moon in that year’s presidential election (archived link).
A corresponding photo The photo of Moon holding the unaltered sign was posted to Ki’s Facebook account on April 27, 2017, where he uses the name Dongmin Gi (archived link).
“The slogan is: ‘A strong president, grandpa is the best!’ There will be no smile on the lips of grandpa candidate Moon Jae-in,” Ki wrote in the caption of the post.
Below you can see the photo shared on the forums in 2017 (left) and the photo Ki posted on Facebook in April 2017 (right):
Ki’s photo was also cited by several South Korean news outlets at the time, including the JongAng Ilbo And Chosun-Ilbo (archived links here And here).
Japanese animation
A further reverse search found the photo of Moon Joon-yong featured in the collage, previously published through the Money Today Newspaper on May 18, 2017 (archived link).
The article said the photo showed the younger Moon in an interview shortly after his father was elected president. The article made no comments about Japan.
Below is a screenshot comparing Moon Joon-yong’s image in the collage (left) with the image published by Money Today (right):
A keyword search on the alleged quote led to a report published by the far-right online newspaper MediaWatch, which attacked former President Moon over his family’s alleged ties to Japan (archived link).
The MediaWatch report said that Moon Joon-yong made the comments in a interview with the Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper in December 2018 (archived link).
In the Kyunghyang Shinmun he spoke about the influence of Japanese animation on his career, but nowhere was he quoted as saying, “I am here today because of Japanese animation.”
AFP has previously debunked similar reports criticizing Moon for alleged pro-Japanese leanings.