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A growing number of Japanese nationals have been entering Korea to settle here since the mid-2000s. In particular, females have far outnumbered males due to the increasing number of marriages between Korean men and Japanese women upon the easing of regulations on naturalization in 2005.
Permanent Japanese residents in Korea numbered 7,519 as of Oct.1 last year, of which 6,182 were female, 4.6 times the number of male Japanese, according to statistics available at the Foreign Ministry of Japan and the Korean Embassy in Japan.
Japanese permanent residents dwindled from 808 in 2001 to 24 in 2002 and to 71 in 2005. But the number rebounded to 1,622 in 2006, soared to 6,952 in 2009 and exceeded the 7,000 level last year.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry expects that the number will exceed the 10,000 level in a few years. Once residents living in Korea for more than three years are counted, the Japanese population in Korea jumped by more than 60 percent last year.
In contrast, the population of Japanese residing throughout the world outside Japan (residents staying more than three years and permanent residents) edged up 1 percent to 1.14 million during the same period, the lowest growth during the past decade. The population of those involved in businesses and students studying overseas or long-term residents showed a meager 0.07 percent gain during the cited period.
“Hallyu” or Korean cultural wave has been cited as another major reason to boost the number of Japanese residents in Korea. “As star actors in Korean dramas have generated mild and masculine image, a considerable number of young Japanese women have inclined to choose Korean men as their spouses,” an expert said.
