Love across borders: almost 48,000 Japanese women on a Korean dating app

South Korean dating app Jung-o-ui Date (roughly “Noon Date”) is gaining ground in Japan. According to its operator Mozet, as reported by the Seoul Economic Daily on 28 October, around 47,800 women from Japan had signed up by September 2026 – about 4.6 times as many as in December 2024 (10,300). Since 2020 the app has offered a feature that lets Korean men meet Japanese women. From January to September 2026 it recorded an average of about 3,200 Korean-Japanese matches a month, with 4,251 in August.

Launched in 2011, the app has also operated in Japan since 2014 and, according to the company, has more than six million sign-ups worldwide; the Japanese women account for less than one percent. Mozet has fully translated the service into Japanese and introduced real-time translation in chats. Industry watchers quoted by the paper see interest moving beyond Korean dramas and music towards direct contact with Koreans. Korean operators are increasingly turning to Japan as growth in their home market slows, the trade portal Global Dating Insights reported.

Enrise's app Wippy has also offered a Korea-Japan feature with language and cultural exchange since October 2025. In an Enrise survey of 454 Japanese Wippy members (11–16 September 2026), 91 percent named South Korea as their most-wanted destination; 43 percent cited practising the language as a reason for contact and 29.3 percent a possible romance. Caveat: the figures come from the companies themselves and have not been independently verified; a match is not a relationship, and the small survey is not representative.