Korea:
Due to past conflict between Korea and Japan, most notably during the Japanese occupation in the 20th century, the influence of karate on Korean martial arts is a contentious issue. During the occupation, many Koreans went to Japan and were exposed to Japanese martial arts. After regaining independence from Japan, many Korean martial arts schools were founded by masters with training in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean martial arts.
For example, Hong Hi Choi, a significant figure in taekwondo history had studied Shotokan karate under Gichin Funakoshi. Karate also provide an important comparative model for the early founders of taekwondo in the formalization of their art inheriting some kata and the belt rank system.
United States: Karate entered the United States mainly through members of the US military, who had learned it in Okinawa or Japan and then opened schools upon their return to the United States. America now has hundreds of karate centers in each state.
United Kingdom: In the 1950s and 1960s, several Japanese karate masters began to teach the art in the United Kingdom. In 1956, Tatsuo Suzuki began teaching Wadō-ryū in London. In 1965, Keinosuke Enoeda of the JKA travelled to Liverpool, where in 1966 he established the Karate Union of Great Britain (KUGB) which at the time was affiliated to the JKA. After Enoeda’s death in 2003, the KUGB elected Andy Sherry as Chief Instructor. Shortly after this, the JKA severed links with the KUGB and set up a new association, the JKAE.
Soviet Union: Karate appeared in the Soviet Union in the mid-1960s, during Khruschev's policy of improved international relations, and the first Shotokan clubs were opened in Moscow's universities. In 1973, however, the government banned karate—together with all other foreign martial arts—endorsing only the Soviet martial art of sambo. Karate schools went underground and lost all international contacts, evolving and mutating wildly. Failing to suppress these uncontrolled groups, the USSR's Sport Committee formed the Karate Federation of USSR in December 1978.
This was an exclusive, state-controlled organization with rules and methods intentionally incompatible with all foreign karate federations. On 17 May 1984, the Soviet Karate Federation was disbanded and all karate became illegal again. In 1988, karate practice became legal again, but under strict government regulations. Only after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1992 did independent karate schools resume functioning, and so federations were formed and national tournaments in authentic styles began.
Film and popular culture: Karate spread rapidly in the West through popular culture. In 1950s popular fiction, karate was at times described to readers in near-mythical terms, and it was credible to show Western experts of unarmed combat as unaware of Eastern martial arts of this kind. By the 1970s, martial arts films had formed a mainstream genre that propelled karate and other Asian martial arts into mass popularity.
The Karate Kid (1984) is a film relating the fictional story of an American adolescent's introduction into karate.
Some well-known stars who have related styles are:
Potential negative issues: Due to the popularity of martial arts, both in mass media and real life, a large number of disreputable, fraudulent, or misguided teachers and schools have arisen over the last 40 years or so. Commonly referred to as a "McDojo" or a "Black Belt Mill," these schools are frequently headed by martial artists of either dubious skill, business ethics, or both.
