Japanese Women or Korean Women for Marriage

[Yohan]

.....I haven't actually seen many attractive Japanese.

.....But if you walk down a busy street or a subway station in central Tokyo or Osaka (as I have done several times), you would be hard pressed to count 10 attractive or even cute women in half an hour of diving into that ocean of people.

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Of course we must add that, at least in my case, I would never settle for a low-IQ Filipina. There are probably less smart Pinay than Japanese, but I don't think it's impossible to find one, especially after living here (Manila) for a few years.

I think so too. There is a difference between attractive and orderly.
Most Japanese women are not really attractive, but do everything to avoid any comment directed to them personally about bad appearance or about bad behavior in public.

Japanese people (while their private rooms are nothing but a mess) take care of their appearance when going out. Women are especially worried about that. I think there is no Japanese woman who is not taking a bath everyday, who is not washing and changing her clothes and cleaning her shoes everyday and who is not a regular customer to a beauty salon to keep her hair in order etc. Medical insurance often covers some adjustment of teeth, ears, nose, knees etc.
Japanese women also have a choice, they can afford from time to time some shopping in better quality shopping malls and department stores. Education also in school and companies are teaching them to be polite, considering other people around them ....
The government and all companies are about thinking in the same direction as the individual Japanese - everybody wants all streets to be in good condition and free of garbage and safe to walk around day and night, trains must be on time, traffic lights have to work, prices for goods and services have to be regulated with no bargain and no tips, public restrooms should be everywhere available and have to be clean...

Of course if now some foreign guy is showing up who never have seen such a life-style in his life, he is totally out of mind, so-called 'yellow fever' -
I am living in Japan since decades and for me this is all normal, daily life and I see many Japanese women of any age who are not attractive at all.

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Filipinas - I am a bit biased, as I have a Filipina fosterdaughter from Mindanao, I took care of her financially since many years, but now she is 24, living in Cebu and working in a bank, she is a university graduate, not a low IQ, I have to say, she looks really nice and is very devoted to me... LOL. Still available and dreaming to leave Philippines.

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I have also 2 daughters with my Japanese wife and 2 granddaughters. If you are living as a foreign man in Japan for long time, you need a family, Japanese are not very much into socializing. You might feel lonely soon, and this is not a cheap place either - I know several foreign men, they gave up and left....

Just noticed, you are Italian, so you are my neighbor. I am originally from Austria, but living in Japan and some other Asian countries most of the time. Never came back to Europe during the last 40 years or so. Now retired, we moved from Tokyo to Okayama, much better environment with less people amd much more green and much cheaper prices (4 times cheaper) if you buy your own home compared to Tokyo.

However such cities do not offer any good job to foreigners and only low-paid work for locals, like elderly care or agriculture related seasonal work.
Still Okayama City has about 800.000 inhabitants, and in Okayama Prefecture are about 7 Million people, nice area between Hiroshima and Osaka.

I am happy to be away from the entire Metropolitan Tokyo area, which totally during rush hours has about 38 million people moving around - too many, I was lucky not to live too far away from my working place and was using a motorcycle and not all these crowded trains...

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I think these 2 links are very useful information for you, please read them
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Japan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_mig ... s_in_Japan

[Yohan]

About looks, it is impossible to see any difference between North Koreans, South Koreans, Japanese and also Mongol people.

Really? Koreans have a limited number of facial types. I think I can sort of tell, withe maybe 40% accuracy, maybe better, a Japanese from a Korean if those are the only two variables. But I've seen Mongols who look Korean to me. Have you discussed this with the Japanese, whether they can identify Koreans by looking at them?

No idea from where you get this impression. You cannot identify by looking only if a person is a Japanese or Korean.
Anyway 40 percent accuracy means, 2 times right and 3 times wrong, not very impressive...

I am living since around 40 years in Japan and the Koreans are the second largest ethnic community here, about 900.000 people or so.

Many of them have Japanese citizenship and are using Japanese names, but others prefer to keep their South Korean citizenship and remain foreigners with special resident status.

I was working together with a Japanese Korean in office for a while, and next to my home my late mother-in-law was renting out a small house to a Korean family. I often like to eat in Korean restaurants, I also like Korean musicians, I was visiting South Korea which is not far away from Japan.

Japanese too of course will tell you it is impossible to decide only by looking at them if they are Koreans or not.
Koreans and Japanese - only by their LOOKS - resemble each other, almost identical.

Otherwise, except their looks, Japanese and Koreans are quite different from each other.

Japanese and Korean language have some similarities, but are clearly two different languages.
The behavior of Japanese and Koreans is quite different, their mentality is not the same.

I can say he is a Korean if I speak with him in Japanese, Koreans have a typical hard accent...
Or I can see about the food they like - Korean meals are quite different from Japanese food.

Koreans are also more talkative and are remarkable good entertainers, the best Asian opera singers, classical musicians I know are from Korea....
Check out any show on Japanese TV, and how many of them on stage have a Korean background...

Some ethnic Koreans in Japan are very successful in business (any business from superrich CEO, from member in Parliament up to Yakuza leader or leading member of the Japanese communist party) and I know they are Koreans, but if you see their pictures what is the difference between them and the Japanese?

Some people claim that Koreans never mix with Japanese, but this is not really true, there are marriages between Koreans and Japanese, and there are children who are 50/50 Korean and Japanese....Who is who?

https://www.haku-s.net
Look at his picture, this is Haku Shinkun, his father is Korean, his mother is Japanese, a present member of the Japanese parliament, he made it up to Senior Vice Minister.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkun_Haku

His Korean name is Baek Jinhoon 백진훈

Do you think he looks more Korean or more Japanese?

[Taco]

if your rich and famous the Japanese gold diggers will be happy to meet you...

[Yohan]

if your rich and famous the Japanese gold diggers will be happy to meet you...

This is the same in every country, worldwide. Not only in Japan...

[MrMan]

Cornfed,

Korean TV shows will have households run by a strong mother or a strong father, sometimes with both types of households presented in the same show. The Japanese also have a concept of a household either run by the king or queen.

I have seen older Korean women who seem submissive and demure toward their husbands. With the younger ones in particular, being demure and seeming submissive is seen as attractive. I hear some of them are that way publicly, but not behind closed doors, though. So a man has to be careful. It's probably like a relationship with any woman from anywhere, where you kind of set the ground rules for the relationship by how you act early on, or else have to figure out how to make adjustments later on and reset the boundaries, which would be a lot harder.

When I was in Korea, there were a lot of girls going around dressed like 'pretty woman' with short skirts and tall boots, and the movie wasn't even new then. They did have nice legs, btw. But some of them would dress like that in the winter cold, too. A friend of mine said, "Don't they know what that woman's occupation was in that movie." I was watching a movie with this friend. For a trailer, they had a sexy panty hose commercial showing a woman's legs. At the end it said the brand, "Feel Up" pantyhose. My friend and I started laughing-- just us. I wonder if a Korean came up with that, or if some American or Canadian English teacher got a side job to help them name their product and laughed after he came up with it. There was a brand of jeans called 'Get Used', too.

A student of mine said a joke college students would play on a female student dressed too provocatively is to come up to her and say, "Olmey e o" (not sure now to write that.) That means, "How much."

[Yohan]

A student of mine said a joke college students would play on a female student dressed too provocatively is to come up to her and say, "Olmey e o" (not sure now to write that.) That means, "How much."

얼마예요?

There is no standard Korean transcription into Roman writing -
The best way is of course to use only Korean writing. I can read Hangul (Korean alphabet).
I would write it like that...but my Korean vocabulary is poor compared to my Japanese.

Eolmayeyo?

How much is it?

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The Japanese also have a concept of a household either run by the king or queen

I don't know any Japanese household which is not under the control of the wife. Japanese men don't care much about what is going on inside the house.

[Taco]

Advice dating Japanese women...

[hypermak]

I think so too. There is a difference between attractive and orderly.
Most Japanese women are not really attractive, but do everything to avoid any comment directed to them personally about bad appearance or about bad behavior in public.

I agree. Well, any woman would try to deflect any comments on her appearance, unless of the highly flattering (and pandering) type. It is definitely a plus that whatever they might lack in genuinely good physical appearance, they try hard to make up by being classy, well-dressed and polite.

Japanese people (while their private rooms are nothing but a mess) take care of their appearance when going out. Women are especially worried about that. I think there is no Japanese woman who is not taking a bath everyday, who is not washing and changing her clothes and cleaning her shoes everyday and who is not a regular customer to a beauty salon to keep her hair in order etc. Medical insurance often covers some adjustment of teeth, ears, nose, knees etc.
Japanese women also have a choice, they can afford from time to time some shopping in better quality shopping malls and department stores. Education also in school and companies are teaching them to be polite, considering other people around them ....
The government and all companies are about thinking in the same direction as the individual Japanese - everybody wants all streets to be in good condition and free of garbage and safe to walk around day and night, trains must be on time, traffic lights have to work, prices for goods and services have to be regulated with no bargain and no tips, public restrooms should be everywhere available and have to be clean...

This is something that deserves our deep respect. As for the untidiness of the Japanese in their own private spaces, could it be because they only have very limited space and they don't have much time to tidy up, given their busy schedules and their desire to spend their little free time outdoor with their peers?

Of course if now some foreign guy is showing up who never have seen such a life-style in his life, he is totally out of mind, so-called 'yellow fever' -
I am living in Japan since decades and for me this is all normal, daily life and I see many Japanese women of any age who are not attractive at all.

Thanks again for the insight. I would love to spend some time in Japan, whether working or as a tourist. We'll see...

Filipinas - I am a bit biased, as I have a Filipina fosterdaughter from Mindanao, I took care of her financially since many years, but now she is 24, living in Cebu and working in a bank, she is a university graduate, not a low IQ, I have to say, she looks really nice and is very devoted to me... LOL. Still available and dreaming to leave Philippines.

Wow, nice to know! Looks like you picked up a smart girl and brought her up to a very decent living standard, at least by Philippine standard. I will pretend to pass on the "devoted to me" LOL

I have also 2 daughters with my Japanese wife and 2 granddaughters. If you are living as a foreign man in Japan for long time, you need a family, Japanese are not very much into socializing. You might feel lonely soon, and this is not a cheap place either - I know several foreign men, they gave up and left....

I can imagine, if it's socially alienating for the Japanese I can imagine what it can be for a foreigner, especially if they don't speak Japanese well.

Just noticed, you are Italian, so you are my neighbor. I am originally from Austria, but living in Japan and some other Asian countries most of the time. Never came back to Europe during the last 40 years or so. Now retired, we moved from Tokyo to Okayama, much better environment with less people amd much more green and much cheaper prices (4 times cheaper) if you buy your own home compared to Tokyo.

However such cities do not offer any good job to foreigners and only low-paid work for locals, like elderly care or agriculture related seasonal work.
Still Okayama City has about 800.000 inhabitants, and in Okayama Prefecture are about 7 Million people, nice area between Hiroshima and Osaka.

I am happy to be away from the entire Metropolitan Tokyo area, which totally during rush hours has about 38 million people moving around - too many, I was lucky not to live too far away from my working place and was using a motorcycle and not all these crowded trains...

Oh you're Austrian! We consider Austria a middle ground between Italy and German. Whatever (amicable) rivalty we have against Germany, we don't have with Austrians. I actually spent a small summer internship in Austra, in Villach, at one of the hotels in the spa resort. Warmbad if I remember the correct spelling.

I assume you left Austria for Japan a long time, when HA wasn't a thing (assuming it is now! LOL)?

I think these 2 links are very useful information for you, please read them
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Japan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_mig ... s_in_Japan

Thanks a lot, grazie mille!

[Taco]

[MrMan]

I was at a Korean grocery store a few weeks back. I looked over and saw this really round but, almost half levitating, inside a pair of yoga pants. There was a woman mopping the floor in yoga pants. She turned around, and it turns out she was an old woman, probably in her mid to late 60's. It was really surreal. It occurred to me when I saw that that Koreans are pretty much a buttless race unless they are overweight (more common with Korean Americans than with Koreans there). So it is extremely likely she had surgery, unless she was a serious anomaly.

[hypermak]

Man...kudos. kudos kudos to the sushi restaurant owner. Talented, smart and knowledgeable about the world (and the gender discourse), and not even that bad looking. Perhaps I am dating in the wrong place LOL

[IraqVet2003]

If there was a choice between Japanese vs. Korean women for marriage, I'd choose JAPANESE ladies.... hands down!!!

[Yohan]

If there was a choice between Japanese vs. Korean women for marriage, I'd choose JAPANESE ladies.... hands down!!!

Difficult to say, depends on the individual woman and also it's about the foreign man - is he willing to live in Korea or Japan, can he speak the language, has he any chance of good employment and so on.

Both countries are not known to offer a supply of women to foreign men - just the opposite, there are many Korean and Japanese men looking for a foreign (usually Asian) wife. Especially Korean/Japanese men from rural areas have a lot of problem to find a female willing to live with them.
Same with Taiwan.

There are many more Korean/Japanese men married to a foreign wife than Korean/Japanese women married to a foreign man, in Japan the ratio is more than 2:1. In Korea and Taiwan I think it's even higher.

I prefer to live in Japan, the country is wider, there are more Japanese than South Koreans, more space, no really serious political/military threats from China or North Korea - I think life is easier in Japan for a foreign man and also the chance to find a Japanese woman for marriage is higher in Japan than in South Korea and Taiwan, which both are really small countries.

[CannedHam]

All the American men that I know married to Korean/Japanese ladies either (1) met in college or while working (either in the US or abroad) or (2) met online, but the lady is 35+, divorced, may have a kid, and usually somewhat unstable. In general Korean men are seen as pretty desirable and given that South Korea is a well-developed country, there just isn't as much of a need for Korean women to look abroad. I would guess Japan is similar, but with extra cultural differences, language barriers, and nationalism thrown in.

[Yohan]

..... South Korea is a well-developed country, there just isn't as much of a need for Korean women to look abroad. I would guess Japan is similar, but with extra cultural differences, language barriers, and nationalism thrown in.

Your observation is correct. Other Asian countries are also nationalistic minded, not only Japan.

However South Korea is now a Christianity-orientated nation, with Buddhism already a minority. Korean Churches are everywhere, worldwide and in South Korea you have various mega churches which can sit more than 20.000 people. In Japan however Christianity except in some places like Nagasaki and Yamaguchi was not very successful, most Japanese stay with Shinto/Buddhism as religion.

Japanese women, compared to Korean women are more polite and calm and try to avoid quarrels. However Korean women are more talkative and good in entertainment.

There are more Japanese women than Korean women. I share your opinion, there is no need for both of them to look around for foreign men - South Korea and Japan are not like the Philippines....

Language barrier is the same in South Korea and Japan - Most Koreans and Japanese are not good with foreign languages.

Japanese and Korean are often similar to each other but still it needs a while - some years - to be able to communicate fluently in one of these 2 languages if your native language is English ... or in my case German.

My Japanese is quite good, but my Korean is merely basic...

International/interracial marriage and living in South Korea or Japan is not so easy for many Western men.
I see this with my fellow countrymen in Japan, a few stay, but many leave....