Public anger in Korea has fallen squarely on national football team manager Hong Myung-bo, with critics blaming him for the country’s disastrous 2026 FIFA World Cup exit. But across the sea in Japan, a wave of sympathy has emerged for the embattled coach, with public figures and commentators casting the criticism in Korea as excessive and vitriolic. Former J.League colleagues rally behind Hong Among those who came to Hong’s defense was Taro Kono, a member of Japan’s House of Representatives. Kono, who served as foreign minister and defense minister under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and later as digital minister under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, wrote Monday on X, formerly Twitter: “Don’t bully our OB Hong Myung-bo.” Derived from the English term “old boy,” “OB” is commonly used in Japan to refer to a former member of an organization or a former player for a sports club. Kono served as chairman of Shonan Bellmare from 2000 to 2005, several years after Hong played for the J.League club in 1997 and 1998, when it was known as Bellmare Hiratsuka. Although the two apparentl