Young South Koreans are looking for work in Japan because they are having a hard time finding it at home

When Japanese entrepreneur Moe Kasugai was a student at Yonsei University in Seoul, she was surprised that some of the top graduates from the prestigious South Korean university were having a hard time finding jobs.

That's why in 2019 she launched a service that connects Korean job seekers with Japanese employers.

"I was surprised that they couldn't find jobs, because they were very capable," said Kasugai, 35, at a two-day job fair organized by her startup KOREC in Seoul last month.

"Many spoke Japanese, so I thought it might be better for them to go to Japan. I wanted to help them."

Young people in South Korea face a chronic shortage of desirable entry-level jobs as big companies like Samsung prefer to hire experienced workers, while many older people stay in their positions longer, Reuters reports. In Japan, whose population is aging, companies are also struggling to fill positions in large graduate employment programs that offer structured training to young people at the start of their careers.

In a sign of growing demand, and despite average salaries now being slightly higher in South Korea than in Japan, South Korea's Wanted Lab and Japan's LAPRAS, both companies specializing in recruiting tech talent, launched services similar to KOREC this year, joining Mynavi, which had previously entered the market.

At least three Japan-focused job fairs have been held in the South Korean capital this year, with companies including Canon Imaging Systems and industrial automation group Azbil taking part. According to the latest monthly data for June, South Korea's youth unemployment rate was seven percent, while Japan's overall unemployment rate was 2,5 percent.

Although the vast majority of foreigners with work visas in Japan perform manual labor, the more than 80.000 Koreans working in the country are mostly employed in professional positions in fields such as retail, information technology and video game development, according to the Korea Institute of Labor.

The Korea Human Resources Development Service recorded that 2.257 young Koreans found jobs in Japan through government-sponsored programs last year, a 47 percent increase from 2024 and making Japan their most popular destination for working abroad. The number of those going to the United States fell by 29 percent.

Korean talents fill gaps in Japan

Despite occasionally strained relations between the two democratic countries, largely due to Japan's colonial rule over Korea in the past, ties are not only strengthening in the area of ​​employment.

The number of marriages between Korean men and Japanese women increased by 26 percent in 2025 from the previous year and was double that of 2020, while the number of marriages between Korean women and Japanese men increased by 29 percent, despite the stagnation of the overall number of international marriages, according to data from the South Korean Statistics Agency.

A record number of South Koreans have visited Japan this year, and they now make up the largest group of foreign tourists in the country, Reuters reports.

"Most of the people I know who are looking for work in Japan were already interested in living there," said student Kim Si-hyeon, one of more than 100 job seekers at the event organized by KOREC. Many, like Kim, are attracted by the opportunity to do on-the-job training at a Japanese company, which Korean companies don't usually offer to fresh graduates.

"Korean companies generally prefer experienced workers, while Japanese companies continue to hire new graduates," said the fourth-year Japanese studies student at Dongguk University, adding that she is looking for a job in the field of information technology or artificial intelligence.

Lee Chang-min, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, said the South Korean workforce is particularly attractive to Japanese companies.

"When it comes to language and culture, the quality of Korean candidates is extremely high. There are not many foreign candidates who can use Japanese at the level needed for real work," he said.

Tomoya Hattori, director of Japanese consulting company Energize, said that the nationality of the candidates is not that important to him, but that he likes their competitiveness, speed and diligence.

"If we find a good candidate, we want to hire them," he said at the job fair.

Challenges in employee retention

Hiring foreign talent, however, also poses challenges for Japanese companies. Many Koreans like to change jobs for career advancement and higher salaries, Kasugai said, which creates difficulties in retaining workers at Japanese firms that are more accustomed to lifelong employment.

"That's definitely a barrier for Japanese companies," she said. "However, young Japanese people are changing jobs more often these days, so I believe that the understanding of Japanese companies will also adjust over time."

The risk of a foreign worker leaving a company is especially high if training takes a long time, if opportunities to apply knowledge beyond a narrowly defined position are limited and if advancement is slow, said Lee of Hankuk University.

For Kasugai, who once considered a diplomatic career and speaks fluent Korean, these placements also have a deeper purpose - they provide an opportunity for better mutual understanding across borders.

"When Koreans go there and start working, there is an exchange with Japanese colleagues who may never have had a Korean friend or know much about Korean culture," she said. "That's something a private company can help create."