Korea-Japan co-productions surge: 'Mary Berry Love', 'Gas Human', and 'Stove League Japan' lead a new wave

Korea offloads costs, Japan gains know-how

Korean-Japanese drama co-productions are multiplying fast. Three titles have already landed on major platforms in 2026, each built on a different model of splitting creative and financial labor. The economics driving the trend are stark.

Japanese dramas cost between 30 million yen (roughly 253 million won) and 50 million yen per episode. Korean productions can run past 3 billion won per episode. That gap is the engine behind the surge. Korean studios reduce their financial exposure. Japanese partners absorb production know-how they can't easily replicate on their own.

Three dramas, three blueprints

Mary Berry Love dropped on Disney+ on October 7. Ji Chang-wook plays Lee Yoo-bin, a Korean space designer who, after a painful failure, heads to a remote island in Japan and meets strawberry farmer Karin, played by Imada Mio. The project started as a Korean-originated concept, then evolved to cast Korean and Japanese leads separately to sharpen the contrast between the two characters. Many of the staff who worked on the Amazon Prime Video series Marry My Husband Japan Version — which aired in June last year — carried over to this production.

Ji Chang-wook said: "I really wanted to work in Japan. I had great expectations that it would be good collaboration."

Stove League Japan Version took a different structural approach. Korean studio Studio S and Japan's NTT co-invested and co-planned the project. The Korean side, which holds the original IP, designed the overall story architecture. The Japanese side handled localization, casting, and filming. It aired on Japanese broadcaster WOWOW this year.

Gas Human, a Netflix co-production released in July, brought director Yeon Sang-ho on board as overall producer. His push for an OTT release accelerated the entire production timeline. Japanese director Katayama Shinzo, who helmed the series, visited the set of Parasyte: The Grey in Korea and picked up on-set video editing techniques there. He applied that workflow directly to Gas Human.

Twenty years in, the relationship is changing shape

About 20 years have passed since the Korean Wave first broke in Japan. What's emerging now isn't just content export. It's a co-production infrastructure where each side brings something the other needs. (The question is whether the creative balance holds as the financial logic tightens.) The three 2026 titles suggest the answer is still being worked out, one island romance and one gas-monster thriller at a time.