A scene from "Winter Sonata"

Japanese women have traditionally married non-Japanese more frequently than Korean women, but there was a strong tendency to favor Western men who spoke English. After Japanese women started falling in love with "Yong-sama," however, the stock price of Korean manhood has gone through the roof, and this would be a reason for Japanese women starting to prefer Korean men.

Marriage brokers specializing in arranging Korean-Japanese marriages are letting out cries of joy as the number of Japanese females signing up for their services has dramatically skyrocketed this year.

Ji Han-jin, the head of the Korean-Japanese marriage broker Rakuenkorea (rakuenkorea.com), said, "With the rebroadcast of 'Winter Sonata' by NHK in April and Bae recently going to Japan to meet with fans, the number of Japanese women signing up with my company has skyrocketed."

The number of Japanese women joining the company's website, opened late last year, has increased dramatically since April, and is now surpassing 1,000 women. There are 2,000 Korean male members, so dozens of couples are now associating with one another for marriage. Of these couples, some are expected to marry soon.

As the number of Japanese women skyrockets, plans have been made to set up a matchmaking meeting with dozens of men and women from both countries in a hotel in Seoul.

They say that the Japanese women who hope to marry Korean men are primarily in their early and middle 30s. An official explained that there are fewer younger women at a suitable age to marry, and nurses are the most represented profession.

This phenomenon, too, seems linked to Bae Yong-jun's tremendous popularity among middle-aged Japanese women. The Internet research firm Net Ratings found that people in their 30s made up 35 percent of the visitors to Bae Yong-jun's Japanese-language website (yongjoon.jp), the largest percentage.

Some Japanese media are perplexed as to why Bae has attracted middle-aged Japanese women so, calling the trend "a mysterious phenomenon." The explanation that Bae possesses a tough yet refined charm that is hard to find in Japanese men is gaining persuasiveness, however.

Recently, the Asahi Shimbun's weekly current events magazine AERA looked at the strong points of Korean men, like their consideration for women, the importance they place on family and their toughness owing to military duty. This contrasts strongly with the character of Japanese men, who have fully adopted Western values that emphasize "personal" space even within the family.

These strong points were highlighted thanks to Bae Yong-jun's popularity that unfolded with the romantic love story of "Winter Sonata."

One 32-year-old woman from Osaka who appeared in the AERA piece said, "I once got to know a Korean man when I was abroad... Korean men are romantic and straight-forward." Other women offered similar feelings, characterizing Korean men as "passionate and warm-hearted."

Perhaps this is why some say this preference for Korean men is not simply a sudden, temporary phenomenon resulting from Bae Yong-jun's personal popularity. They say the background is the steady progress made in social and cultural communication and understanding between the peoples of the two neighboring countries.

Explaining that this is the natural conclusion to exchanges that have become increasingly vibrant, they say "Winter Sonata" simply opened up the floodgates.

One female Japanese media figure recently said she taped and watched all the recent episodes of "Winter Sonata." She said, "I was at first surprised to see how the cultural background, including the outfits of the main characters, was similar to Japan... I didn't know that before."

Another Japanese media figure pointed out, "As we import all sorts of outstanding Korean movies and dramas one after the other, our old feelings of superiority over Koreans are collapsing... The preference for Korean men is connected to this."

(englishnews@chosun.com )