October is seeing an unusual number of TV shows premiere in Korea and Japan that have one thing in common: Each depends in some way on talent, intellectual property (IP) or production from the other country.
There have of course been the remakes, like Korea's “Doctor X: Mafia in White” and Japan's “Extraordinary Attorney Minami.” But also among them is “Merry Berry Love,” the Ji Chang-wook and Mio Imada-led romance that climbed to No. 2 on Disney+’s worldwide TV show chart after opening on Oct. 7.
A still from "Doctor X: Mafia in White"SBS
A poster for "Extradordinary Attorney Minami"NETFLIX
Jointly produced by Korean entertainment giant CJ ENM and Japan’s Nippon TV, the collaboration goes beyond simply casting stars from both countries. Ji plays a Korean spatial designer who ends up on a Japanese island, where he meets a strawberry farmer played by Imada, in a story built around characters from both countries from the outset — one of a growing number of Korea-Japan projects conceived for wider international audiences.
“In the past, Korea-Japan co-productions basically targeted [each other of] the two countries’ markets,” cultural critic Kim Heon-sik said. “Now, Korea and Japan are not the end goal.”
Kim, along with studios including CJ ENM, says the spread of global streaming platforms has fundamentally changed the game. Rather than first establishing a project at home and then taking it overseas through remakes or format sales, producers can now develop new projects jointly and take them directly to multiple markets.
Different needs, shared gains
A still from “kidNap GAME”FUJI TV
For Japanese broadcasters, the push comes as they look beyond their large but mature home market.
By sheer size, Japan’s domestic video market dwarfs Korea’s. Media Partners Asia estimated Japan’s video industry generated about $32 billion in revenue in 2023, compared to $12 billion in Korea.
That same year, Korean drama exports reached about $539 million, according to the Korea Information Society Development Institute, eclipsing the 4.01 billion yen ($27.8 million) in drama exports from Japan, according to Japanese government data.
Korea’s small domestic market has long pushed its drama industry to depend heavily on overseas sales, from presales to Japan during the “Winter Sonata” (2002) boom to financing from China and, later, global streaming platforms such as Netflix.
And Japan is looking to tap into Korea’s outward-facing production model, which has helped produce global hits such as “Squid Game” (2021-25).
Yusuke Kato, director of the thriller “kiDnap GAME,” which premiered on Oct. 6, said the idea for the series took shape after the worldwide success of the Korean Netflix show.
“I was shocked that a global hit had emerged from Asia, and, to be frank, I also felt jealous,” Kato told Japanese outlet Mynavi News, adding that he wanted to create something that would work “not only in Asia, but also in Europe and the United States.”
Planned by Fuji TV and co-produced with Korea’s SimStory and Hong Kong’s MakerVille, “kiDnap GAME” was financed by the three companies and filmed across seven Asian cities.
A still from “Love is for the Dogs” (2025)TBS
Fuji TV has cited the structural decline of terrestrial advertising revenue as it works to shift from a broadcaster-centered model toward a wider content and IP business. Nippon TV and TBS have similarly emphasized global distribution, IP development and international production in recent corporate strategies.
CJ ENM, which has worked with Japanese partners on co-production projects including the drama “Love is for the Dogs” (2025) and survival show “MUGEN LOOP” (2025) said its main value to Japanese partners lies in the “IP planning and production expertise” it has built in global markets, including the ability to turn ideas into projects that can appeal across different territories.
CJ ENM and Japanese broadcaster TBS agreed in 2024 to jointly produce at least three terrestrial dramas and two films over three years. The partnership has since expanded into StudioMonowa, a joint venture with streaming operator U-NEXT Holdings, where CJ ENM handles global content planning while its Japanese partners contribute local IP, production and distribution networks.
A still from "The Monster Within" (2025)TV ASAHI
Korean producers, meanwhile, have been looking for new markets and financing as conditions at home tighten.
Despite their increasingly global ambitions, many Korea-Japan co-productions remain centered in Japan when it comes to filming, casting and where they air.
Japanese dramas typically cost 30 million to 50 million yen per episode, compared to roughly 700 million won ($490,000) to more than 1 billion won in Korea, with tentpole productions reaching 3 billion to 4 billion won per episode.
Japan also offers Korean producers a deep pool of proven IP. A Kocca Tokyo Business Center report cited Japan’s stable terrestrial broadcasting system, financing capacity and wealth of manga, anime and game IP as advantages Korean producers can tap.
“We do not see Japan simply as a market to sell content to, but as a partner with which we can jointly develop new content,” a CJ ENM spokesperson said. “The goal is not to stop at producing content, but to connect it to distribution, secondary works and other businesses to increase the lifetime value of IP.”
So much love
A still from “Merry Berry Romance”CJ ENM
Joint production gives the creators more room to blend the two countries’ different storytelling styles, rather than simply transplanting one into the other.
Speaking about SLL and TV Asahi’s co-produced love suspense “The Monster Within” (2025) at a Tokyo press conference, SLL production chief Park Jun-seo that Korean dramas tend to favor more direct and intense expressions of emotion, while Japanese dramas are often more restrained and delve deeper into characters and subject matter.
Bringing those strengths together, he said, could create “a more upgraded work.”
Kim offered a similar, though somewhat broader, distinction.
“Japanese content is good at picking up on niche subjects,” he said, describing them as sometimes “otaku-like” — highly specific or finely detailed — along with a “strong portrayal of the psyche.”
Korean content, by contrast, tends to use “bigger, broader subjects” and is “more narrative-driven,” he said, with a stronger emphasis on how events connect.
That has led to genre works like thrillers, crime and horror “becoming particularly strong,” Kim said, pointing to their focus on structure, provocative setups and intense scenes.
A still from "The Human Vapor"NETFLIX
For Netflix’s “The Human Vapor,” executive producer and co-writer Yeon Sang-ho helped develop the project from its early stages, working on the script with Ryu Yong-jae before Japanese director Shinzo Katayama joined and helped adapt it to contemporary Japan.
Katayama said he later brought a Korean production method to the set after visiting Yeon’s “Parasyte: The Grey” (2024).
“I learned how to shoot while editing on set, and we brought that style into this production,” he said, which helped the crew to better understand “how we wanted the finished work to look.”
For now, one genre continues to dominate Korea-Japan co-production: romance.
Of 14 scripted Korea-Japan co-productions released from 2024 through October this year that the Korea JoongAng Daily could verify, excluding localized remakes, nine — or 64 percent — centered on romantic relationships. They range from Coupang Play’s “What Comes After Love” (2024), pairing Lee Se-young and Kentaro Sakaguchi, to “Soul Mate” and “Merry Berry Love.”
The pattern is not entirely new, according to Kim, but what collaboration means has changed.
Earlier Korea-Japan collaborations “were mostly centered on inserting Hallyu [Korean Wave] stars or other celebrities,” he said. “Rather than starting with the content or an original work, they were produced around the buzz surrounding the actors, so there weren’t many successful cases.”
Today, romance remains a relatively safe and popular genre for collaboration, helped by increasingly favorable sentiment between Koreans and Japanese, Kim added. Recent data show both cross-border marriages and mutual favorability have risen.
“Romantic comedies like 'Merry Berry Love' that are unrelated, or less closely related, to historical issues — especially stories aimed at Generation Z — are probably one area where Japan and Korea can collaborate right now,” he said.
