KRA Personifies Racehorse as School Uniform Girl... Quietly Deletes Video from YouTube Amid Controversy

Assemblyman Lee Byeong-jin "We Must Have a Higher Awareness of Gender"
"Awareness of Women and Minors Revealed Bluntly"

The Korea Racing Authority (KRA) was found to have produced its own YouTube content by imitating a game content that anthropomorphized racehorses as women or underage girls, causing controversy.

On the 16th, Lee Byung-jin, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (Pyeongtaek-eul), stated, "We confirmed that the KRA produced and then deleted YouTube content imitating the 2023 Kakao game content 'Uma Musume (Daughters of Horses).'" He pointed out, "The Uma Musume game anthropomorphizes horses as women and caused controversy by sexualizing them with provocative and sexual images." He added, "Among these characters, some wear school uniforms, which also sparked controversy over the sexualization of minors." He criticized, "The KRA explained that the content was removed due to copyright issues, but this reveals serious problems with the KRA's sexual objectification and gender awareness."

Lee Byung-jin, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea representing Pyeongtaek-eul, announced that he confirmed the Korea Racing Authority produced YouTube content using the Japanese game "Uma Musume."
[Photo by Lee Byung-jin, Office of the Democratic Party of Korea]

Furthermore, the lawmaker said, "The content produced by the KRA features a KRA announcer inputting characteristics of Korean racehorses into an AI program to generate Uma Musume-style characters, including gestures that shocked female announcers." During a National Assembly Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee briefing, he questioned, "Due to the KRA's lack of gender awareness, problematic aspects were not reviewed during the planning stage, leading to the production of the content," and urged, "Measures to prevent recurrence must be established, and efforts should be made to reform the organizational culture."

The KRA has been repeatedly criticized in the National Assembly not only for anthropomorphizing racehorses as women but also for sexual misconduct issues. In 2018, four senior executives were disciplined for sexual misconduct incidents, and in 2022, a secondary victimization occurred during the handling of an internal sexual harassment case, highlighting management failures. The recurrence of such incidents at the Korea Racing Authority has been attributed to lenient, protective punishments within the organization, leading to weakened discipline.

Lee said, "No employee recognized the problem with anthropomorphizing racehorses as school uniform-clad girls and distributing such content," and added, "I wonder if such issues would have occurred if there had been female executives who could have raised concerns."

He also stated, "It is time for Chairman Jeong Ki-hwan of the KRA to make decisive decisions and propose alternatives for genuine corporate culture improvement and prevention of recurrence," emphasizing, "Public institutions must have a higher level of gender awareness."

Meanwhile, according to data submitted by the KRA to the lawmaker, there have been no female executives among the seven standing executives from last year to the present. As of July this year, among 107 standing committee members, general grade 1 and general grade 2 employees, only one is female, and even when expanding the scope to grade 3, only 32 out of 216 employees are women.