Seen is the signboad for Tetsuro Seoul, a Japanese dining bar near Seoul Station, Monday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

On a rainy Monday night in March, nostalgic melodies of Japanese city pop played aloud outside a small pub in an old neighborhood near Seoul Station.

Unlike neighboring establishments, the bar's orange signboard showed no words in Korean. Instead, it only featured some words in Japanese and English, while its facade also displayed posters featuring Japanese beer and food products.

"This feels like we're actually in Japan. Everything feels so real," a 30-something first-timer said, looking around the pub's interior.

The cozy restaurant, lively but not too loud, had almost everything — from toilet and Wi-Fi signage to pepper pots on tables — from Japan. A series of Japanese comic books, magazines, vinyl records and empty liquor bottles were also displayed on shelves.

"I remember having so much fun in Osaka last month," she said.

Then, sipping an icy glass of whisky highball, her colleague said, "I've never been to Japan, but this yakisoba makes me feel like I was there before and had it in the past."

Diners enjoy Japanese food and drinks at Tetsuro Seoul, a Japan-themed dining pub near Seoul Station, Monday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

That was precisely what the 28-year-old restaurant owner Hwang Young-soo intended.

He said it took him months to fill the bar with Japanese vintage items he sought out and collected from secondhand markets all across the country. The goal was to make "the most realistic version" of a Japanese drinking den as possible and offer a late-night imaginary adventure to the neighboring country.

"Most of my customers are office workers, worn out from hectic, daily lives. I wish they would come here as if they were here for a small, quick timeout to Japan during lunch break or a weeknight and return to their daily lives with better energy, as if they have had a good trip," Hwang said.

Hwang's establishment is one of the numerous Japan-themed dining pubs that have sprung up across the country in recent months. Not only Seoul but also the trendy districts of Jeonpo-dong in Busan, the country's second-largest southeastern port city, is seeing a surge of such dining pubs that mimic Japan's atmosphere.

A signboard stands in front of a Japan-themed dining pub, "Special Night," in Sinchon, Seoul, Monday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

These pubs, created and operated by Koreans targeting young, trend-sensitive locals, serve a variety of Japanese rice wine, whisky, draft beer and cocktails, as well as typical Japanese "izakaya" menus, such as fried chicken, grilled chicken skewers and hot pot.

This emerging food and beverage trend stems from young Korean's growing affection for traveling to Japan, according to culture experts.

Japan became a top cost-effective tourism destination for Koreans while the travel industry saw a dramatic surge in outbound travel last year under the gloomy economy and low value of the Japanese yen.

As a result, the number of Koreans who experienced Japanese cuisine from traveling overseas grew exponentially and led to growing demands for Japanese food back at home, according to culture critic Lim Hee-yun and food critic Park Sang-hyun.

According to the Korea Tourism Organization and the Japan National Tourism Organization, Korea accounted for the largest portion of the 25 million inbound visitors to Japan last year, with 6.9 million tourists, constituting 27.8 percent of the total.

People walk on the Nakamise shopping street leading to Sensoji temple at the Asakusa district in Tokyo, Feb. 12. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, around 25 million people visited Japan in 2023, with Chinese nationals accounting for about 10 percent of the total inbound tourists. EPA-Yonhap

The figure represents approximately 30 percent of Korea's 22.7 million outbound travelers in 2023. This marks a dramatic post-pandemic recovery, as the number of outbound travelers increased significantly from 18,947 in 2021 to 1 million in 2022, and nearly grew sevenfold last year to reach its peak.

Such a new trend would have been "unimaginable" some years ago, as elder generations of Koreans have had "uneasy feelings" toward the former colonizer and economic rival. However, the new generation is a shift in their perception of Japan through the growing influence of K-culture and cultural exchanges between the two countries, Lim pointed out.

"As K-culture grew more globally competitive than J-culture in the last five to six years, Koreans got over economic rivalry toward Japan. In the past, Koreans had mixed feelings of historical animosity and rivalry, which became much diluted among the younger people," Lim said.

"The young generation is also well aware of the historical issues and still share the uneasy feelings (of the past generation), but it learned to set that apart from appreciating popular culture."

He also explained that as a result, Japanese culture, once restricted and considered subculture appreciated by minority underground, grew as mainstream popular in Korea in recent years.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Korea's full lifting of a ban on Japanese popular culture, Lim explained. The Korean government and public believed that the Japanese language and culture must be driven out in order to restore the decades of lost sovereignty in the post-liberation era and refrain from receiving cultural influence from Japan to protect national identity.

Under the cultural restriction, illegally copied and translated Japanese comic books, animation videos and J-pop albums spread like wildfire. During the Kim Dae-jung administration, which was inaugurated in 1998, Korea started to gradually dismantle the cultural ban through four stages by issuing a joint declaration on the future-oriented partnership with then-Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi.

Former President Kim Dae-jung, right, shakes hands with then-Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi during a summit at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, March 20, 1999. Korea Times file

Through dynamic cultural exchanges, several Japanese musicians achieved viral success in the Korean music charts during the 2010s. Additionally, elements of Japanese pop music and animation have come to influence the K-pop industry significantly, the critic explained.

The trade statistics also mirror the popularity of Japanese liquor in Korea.

According to the Korea Customs Service, Japanese sake imports rose to a record high of 21.38 million dollars last year, up 12.6 percent from 2022.

Imports of Japanese beer jumped almost three-fold to $55.52 million over the same period.

This July 7, 2019 photo shows visitors to the 2019 Seoul Sake Festival trying Japanese liquor at COEX in Gangnam District, Seoul. Newsis

"This could be a good thing for Busan (and Korea), to garner such diversity in the culinary scene to become a truly international tourism destination. London, for example, has world-class quality restaurants from all across the globe," a Busan-based tourism industry insider said on condition of anonymity, expressing doubt the trend threatens local identity.

Meanwhile, some remain vigilant against the indiscriminate influx of Japanese culture.

Korean archer An San, who won three gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics in Japan in 2021, caused a stir with an online post that described a Japan-themed restaurant in Gwangju as a "traitor to the nation."

A signboard written in Japanese and English at a restaurant in Seoul / Korea Times file

The 23-year-old posted a photo on Instagram showing a signboard indicating "international departure" bound for Japan, purportedly criticizing the spread of Japan-themed restaurants.

"The restaurant district that An visited had Torii, a traditional Japanese gate commonly found at the entrance of shrines," Lim pointed out, "For most Koreans, such an installation could be seen as associated with the Yaskuni Shrine and Japan's war crimes and trigger animosity," Lim explained.

"Sometimes it's difficult to tell whether we are in Korea or Japan," Park said, referring to some neighborhoods in big cities filled with Japanese-style pubs.

This could limit the diversity in the culinary scene, the food critic said, pointing out that 12 Japanese restaurants were recognized in Busan's inaugural edition of Michelin Guide last month, whereas only nine Korean restaurants were awarded. "Can we still call it a Michelin guide of Korea?"

Park added that Japanese cuisine's minimal and iconic nature attribute to garnering popularity in Korea and abroad.

"Japanese cuisine is Instagrammable, much more so than Korean cuisine," he said, explaining young, trend-sensitive consumers who are heavy social media users are the main target of these Japan-themed establishments.

"It's also similar to Korean cuisine but much simpler and requires less diverse types of ingredients, which makes it easier for business owners to open and manage start a restaurant … These are some tasks left for the Korean food scene to figure out to grow more global," the critic said.