A report examining the growing number of South Korea-Japan drama co-productions has sparked debate on TheQoo, where many commenters questioned whether the partnerships benefit the two industries equally.
According to Dong-A Ilbo, Korean and Japanese companies are increasingly moving beyond simply selling finished dramas or remake rights and instead collaborating from the investment, planning and production stages.
One recent example is Merry Berry Love, starring Ji Chang-wook and Japanese actress Mio Imada. The romantic comedy was developed and produced by South Korea’s CJ ENM in partnership with Japan’s Nippon TV, with production staff from both countries working together.
The project originally began as a Korean-developed concept before evolving into a story built around Korean and Japanese characters. Much of the filming took place in Japan, with Japanese staff also participating in post-production.
Another example is the Japanese adaptation of Stove League. Korean production company Studio S and Japan’s NTT jointly invested in and planned the project. The Korean side, which owns the original intellectual property, designed the overall story structure, while the Japanese side handled localization, casting and filming.
Dong-A Ilbo reported that the growing model offers different advantages to each industry.
For Korean production companies, partnering with Japanese companies can spread production costs and provide a relatively lower-cost route into an overseas market. The report cited Korea Creative Content Agency figures showing that Japanese television dramas typically cost around 30 million to 50 million yen per episode, while the budgets of some Korean dramas can exceed ₩3 billion per episode.
Japanese companies, meanwhile, are looking to Korean partners for production experience, creative networks and workflows developed through the growth of the Korean drama industry.
The Netflix co-production Human Vapor was cited as another example. Japanese director Shinzo Katayama reportedly visited the Korean set of Parasyte: The Grey, where he observed a production method involving editing footage while filming was still underway and later incorporated the approach into his own production.
While the original report presented the growing partnerships as a model that could benefit both sides, many TheQoo users were skeptical. Some argued that Japanese companies stood to gain more by learning Korean production methods, while others compared the situation to previous disputes involving Korean technology and intellectual property.
Several commenters specifically invoked the past controversy surrounding the LINE messaging platform, although the LINE dispute is unrelated to the television co-production deals discussed in the report.
Netizen Reactions
The sampled reactions were overwhelmingly skeptical of the “win-win” description, with many commenters arguing that Japan could gain Korean production know-how while Korea receives comparatively little in return.
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