By John Geddie and Josh Smith
TOKYO/SEOUL (Reuters) -In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing U.S. political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia.
Kirk, 31, who helped amplify Republican President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university.
In Seoul on Friday, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory”, while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference that has previously featured speakers including Donald Trump Jr.
“The phenomenon of young people, especially men, turning conservative is occurring simultaneously across multiple continents,” Kirk told the audience, who waved their phones and chanted ‘USA’ as he entered the stage to an elaborate pyrotechnic display.
“It is not unique to the U.S., which is why it deserves more attention. That is why I chose South Korea as my first Asian destination.”
The event also included a worship concert, a session on “How Christians Can Lead the World” and a video message from American diaper company Everylife, which says it has a “pro-life mission” and urged young South Koreans to “make more babies”.
Recent elections spanning North America, Europe and Asia show young men voting for right-wing parties and young women leaning left, a break from pre-pandemic years when both tended to vote for progressives.
Opinion polls show the gender divide is particularly stark in South Korea, where the liberal Democratic Party wrested back power after the conservative former president was removed from office and jailed over a bungled attempt to impose martial law.
COMMITTED ‘COMRADE’
After Seoul, Kirk travelled to Tokyo where he spoke at a symposium hosted by the upstart Sanseito party, which made its political breakthrough in a July upper house vote warning about a “silent invasion” of immigrants.
“I’m excited … to learn and to hopefully invigorate the people of your great nation to keep fighting this globalist menace,” Kirk said in an interview with a Sanseito lawmaker posted on YouTube before the event.
The party’s leader, Sohei Kamiya, said he was “stunned and heartbroken” at the news of Kirk’s death in a post on X on Thursday, calling him a “comrade committed to building the future with us”.
“We had promised to meet again at his year-end event and had begun to imagine the work we would take on together,” Kamiya said.
Speaking this week on his podcast about his Asia trip, Kirk said: “The same things we have been fighting for here – whether it be lawfare in South Korea or mass migration in Japan – this is a worldwide phenomenon.”
Japan’s foreign-born residents account for just 3% of the population, a far lower proportion than in the United States and Europe, but record numbers of tourists in recent years have made foreigners more visible in major cities.
(Reporting by John Geddie in Tokyo and Josh Smith in Seoul; Additional reporting by Kantaro Komiya in Tokyo; Editing by William Mallard)
