Hollys, a South Korean coffee chain, opened a store in Honmachi, the central shopping district of Osaka, Japan, on March 6. This marks the coffee chain’s second location after it opened its first store in Namba, Osaka, last May. The Honmachi store has a signboard with “Hollys” written in both Japanese and Korean, and a wall inscription that reads “Premium K (Korean) Cafe.”
Korean companies are making inroads into Japan, a market dubbed the “graveyard of foreign brands.” Japan is well known for its strong loyalty to local brands, and Korean companies have traditionally struggled to gain a foothold in the market. Companies such as Coupang, Baemin and Kyochon Chicken have repeatedly entered and withdrawn from Japan since the early 2020s. But recent trends suggest that Korean brands now see Japan as an opportunity rather than a challenge.
The rise of Korean brands in Japan has been fueled in part by the success of K-beauty. Korean cosmetics have been Japan’s top imported foreign beauty products for three consecutive years, gaining popularity among teens and young women in their 20s. Korean beauty brands have expanded beyond online platforms to major brick-and-mortar retail stores like Don Quijote and Loft, often by capitalizing on popular K-pop stars such as Blackpink and IVE as brand ambassadors.
In July last year, Qoo10 Japan, an e-commerce platform operated by eBay Japan, hosted “Mega Cosme Land 2024,” a beauty event at which 29 out of 30 booths featured K-beauty brands. Over a single weekend, around 20,000 visitors, mostly women in their teens to 30s, attended the event.
South Korea’s cosmetics exports to Japan surpassed $1 billion for the first time last year on the back of growing demand. Qoo10 Japan announced on March 14 plans to foster 20 K-beauty brands worth 100 billion yen and 100 brands worth 10 billion yen in partnership with Cosmax, Korea’s leading cosmetics manufacturer. “We will support our clients' expansion into Japan,” said Cosmax Chairman Lee Kyung-soo.
The popularity of K-beauty has also reshaped the so-called Korean Wave (Hallyu) in Japan. Once driven by middle-aged women drawn to Korean dramas, the trend is now led by Japanese millennials and Gen Z, who also consume Korean beauty, fashion and food.
Korean fast-food brands are also making a push into Japan. Mom’s Touch, a burger and fried chicken chain, opened its first Japanese location in Shibuya, Tokyo, taking over a spot where McDonald’s had operated for 39 years. A second store is set to open in Harajuku, and the company aims to expand to 30 locations in Japan by the end of the year.
Korean food businesses are diversifying beyond traditional dishes like kimchi stew and gamjatang (pork backbone stew), moving into highly competitive segments such as burgers, fried chicken, and coffee, competing with both Japanese domestic brands and global food chains.
“Korean brands that once did not venture beyond Korean towns are now establishing themselves in Japan’s prime commercial districts,” said an industry insider.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs, the number of Korean food brands in Japan grew 43% last year, increasing from 21 in 2022 to 30 in 2023, while the total number of Korean food establishments rose 21%, from 133 to 161.
Korean fashion brands are also gaining traction in Japan. Musinsa, a leading Korean shopping platform, said its ‘global store’ targeting consumers outside Korea turned a profit last year, boosted by sales in Japan. Nearly half of Musinsa’s global sales come from Japan, according to the company. Another Korean fashion platform, Ably, launched its Japanese service “amood” in late 2023, and became the only Korean shopping app to rank among the top five shopping app downloads in Japan.
