The growing popularity of Korean pop culture in Japan also opened up the doors for Korean actors and actresses. Korean actress Yoon Sohn Ha had main roles in the Japanese dramas Mou Ichido Kiss (NHK) and Fighting Girl (Fuji TV). Also, taking three years to complete, the Japanese television company TBS and Korean production company MBC collaborated and released the first Japanese/Korean prime time TV drama series entitled Friends earlier this year. Jpop idol Kyoko Fukada and Kpop star Won Bin played the role of a couple "whose love transcends the two countries' borders" despite protests of family and friends. Originally set in New York, but altered due to the 9/11 tragedy, the drama opens up with couple's fateful meeting in Hong Kong. They continue to correspond by e-mail when they return to their home countries. Fukada's character is opened up to a whole new world and works hard to break the language barrier by learning Korean, while Won Bin's character fights to overcome his father's traditional ideals in order to become a movie director and to have a relationship with a Japanese woman. Broadcasted on TV in both Korea and Japan, this drama gained widespread popularity.

Recently this summer, the Korean Times Newspaper reported that Japanese TV station TV Asahi will release a dubbed version of the Korean drama All About Eve, a story about two determined women striving for the seat of news broadcaster. Even though American TV dramas such as ER, Beverly Hills 90210, Roswell and Ally McBeal (re-titled as Ally, My Love in Japan) have been broadcasted on Japanese TV for many years, this is the first time a Korean drama with no Japanese ties will air on TV in Japan.

Besides visual media, music by Korean artists has been dominating the Japanese music charts. The 2002 FIFA World Cup TM Official Album~Songs of Korea/Japan, a collaboration album between Jpop and Kpop singers, dominated the Japanese music charts this summer. Also this year, the 15 year-old Korean singer BoA (which stands for 'Beat of an Angel' and her real name, Kwon Boa) was the first non-Japanese artist to rank number one on the Japanese music charts with her debut album Listen to My Heart. The third track on her album, Every Heart-- Minna no Kimochi, was featured as the fourth ending theme song for the popular anime TV series Inu Yasha. Her music is still growing in popularity today with her talent and ability to sing in Japanese, Korean, and English.

The 2002 FIFA World Cup concluded this past June, but the Japanese show no signs of losing interest in Korean pop culture. Although Japan and Korea did not win the 2002 FIFA World Cup, this experience opened up new doors for both countries. Even though the history between Japan and Korea still haunts both in the present day, maybe this small, yet significant event will help bridge the gap between the neighboring countries for the new generations to come.