By Lee Kyoung Mi and Lee Jihae

With young Japanese largely prevented from visiting Korea due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a report shows that many of them seek a Korean experience by buying items in Koreatowns in Japan. 

The Osaka office of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) on Dec. 1 explained in a report what items Japanese visitors to the city's Koreatown like and what the district looks like on weekends when packed with visitors.

The campaign "Go To Travel" in Japan encourages domestic travel by supporting up to half of a tourist's travel expenses, and this program has also raised the number of visitors to the Koreatown.

"The number of visitors declined over a one-year period from summer last year due to Japan's export restrictions on Korea. But so many visitors now make it seem almost as if it's a world with nothing to do with COVID-19," the report said.

The owner of a store for Hallyu-related items was quoted as saying, "People haven't been able to go to Korea for a long time, and their desire to experience Korea even indirectly has led to the current situation."

Korean-made products are also all the rage.

Shibuya109, a famous shopping fashion facility in Japan, surveyed 600 women ages 15-24 on their preferred trends this year. Of the eight categories polled, Korea-related content topped drama and broadcasting, cosmetics and skincare, cafe and food, and home cafe.

Korean lip tint ranked No. 1 in the cosmetic and skincare category. The number of reviews of Korean skincare products by Japanese rose on YouTube and social media, and as masks became the norm due to the pandemic, lipstick that leaves no stain on masks grew popular.

In the cafe and food category, Korean "ttung-carons" or "fatcarons," or "fat" macarons with a lot of filling, ranked second, cheese gimbap (a seaweed-wrapped rice roll) ranked fourth and birthday cakes fifth. In the home cafe category, dalgona (honeycomb toffee) coffee ranked first and yangnyeom (sweet and spicy) chicken fourth.

These results showed heightened Japanese interest in Korean food sparked by social media.

Topping the drama and broadcasting category, Nizi Project is an audition program hosted by 1990s K-pop star Park Jin-young, CEO of the talent agency JYP Entertainment, to form a K-pop girl group with Japanese members. The act resulting from the project, NiziU, also ranked first in the artist category.

"Hallyu is already an inextricable and close element in the lives of many young women," the KOTRA report said. "Social media is a valuable source of information for consumers, so it will be effective if corporations get a good grasp of social media for use as a crucial means of boosting sales."

km137426@korea.kr