K-beauty emerges as new gateway to Korean culture in Japan

By Hankookilbo

• Published Sep 8, 2026 5:35 PM KST

“K-beauty has become a new gateway for people in Japan to experience Korean culture.”

Missha Japan CEO Kang In-gyu, who has been in the cosmetics business in Japan for more than 20 years, made the remark at the Global K Zone event held Monday at the Korean Cultural Center in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

“The status of Korean cosmetics in Japan has changed tremendously over the past 20 years,” Kang said. When the company entered the Japanese market in 2006, Korean cosmetics were largely viewed as affordable alternatives to Japanese products. Today, however, they have established themselves as a symbol of Korean culture.

In the past, Japanese consumers often encountered K-beauty while traveling to Korea. As opportunities to consume Korean films and television dramas increased, they began to take notice of the beauty products featured on screen. Word of mouth about products with high-quality ingredients further boosted their popularity, helping K-beauty become a mainstream force in Japan’s cosmetics market.

As perceptions of K-beauty have changed, cosmetics are emerging as a new channel through which Japanese consumers discover Korean culture.

Izeki Jinari, a 16-year-old high school student who has used Korean cosmetics since elementary school, said she first became interested in them because she wanted to try products used by members of her favorite K-pop group.

“But when I look at friends around me who have recently become interested in Korean culture, it seems that many of them start with K-beauty,” she said.

Her comments reflect a broader shift. While K-pop served as an entry point to Korean culture for many Japanese teenagers and young adults in the past, beauty has now established itself as another form of content helping spread Korean culture.

As more Japanese consumers embrace K-beauty, the trends shaping Japan’s beauty market are also changing.

Lee Soo-min, strategic planning director at Goodai Global Japan, which operates brands including TIRTIR and Skin Angel, said beauty trends in Japan are now developing almost simultaneously with those in Korea.

“In the past, trends that became popular in Korea would reach the Japanese market with a time lag of about six months,” Lee said. “But teenagers and people in their 20s can now quickly track trends in Korea through social media, accelerating the pace of change in Japan as well.”

The Korean Cultural Center organized the event with this changing pattern of Korean cultural consumption in mind.

From this month through December, the center will host its Global K Zone program, offering Japanese visitors opportunities to experience and enjoy Korean culture firsthand. K-beauty was selected as the theme for the inaugural event.

The center also took into consideration that more than half of Japanese visitors to Korea are women in their teens and 20s, who tend to have a strong interest in beauty. Ultimately, the program aims to encourage broader consumption of Korean culture in Japan.

“We want to use this opportunity to help Japanese people experience and consume Korean culture,” said Park Young-hye, director of the Korean Cultural Center. “Starting with beauty products, we hope they will have the opportunity to experience a variety of products that embody Korean values.”

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.