K-Beauty Products Gain Popularity in Tokyo Convenience Stores and Drugstores

"I used to buy sheet masks every time I traveled to Korea, but now I can easily find them at Japanese drugstores, so I visit often," said Honami, a woman in her 30s, during a visit to a drugstore near Nippori Station in Tokyo on June 14. She added, "Korean products are popular because they offer great cost performance."

Japanese drugstores sell a mix of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and daily necessities. The cosmetics section of the store Honami visited was dominated by K-Beauty products.

On one side of the display, APR's beauty device brand Medikube AGE-R was prominently featured, alongside K-Beauty brands Anua and Numbers in, which had their sheet masks lined up.

Nippori Station is a stop on the Skyliner express train connecting Narita Airport and downtown Tokyo, making it a common spot for both locals and foreign tourists to browse Korean products.

The display included popular items such as the AGE-R Booster Pro Mini Plus, Medikube's PDRN line, and Zero Pore Pads, with testers available for local consumers to try.

K-Beauty's presence is also evident in convenience stores. At a Seven-Eleven in Japan, Clio's color cosmetics brand 'Twinkle Pop' was featured, and some lip tint products were sold out. With 21,927 Seven-Eleven locations as of February this year, K-Beauty has penetrated various aspects of local consumer life.  

The popularity of Korean cosmetics is also evident in Shinjuku's Ikemen Street, a hub for Korean cultural content. A store employee noted, "Many Japanese schoolgirls come here, and most of our customers are women in their teens and twenties." Preparations were underway for the opening of a new K-Beauty shop, with staff organizing products imported from Korea.

This growing interest in K-Beauty in Japan is reflected in export figures. According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the trade balance for cosmetics reached a surplus of $10.1 billion last year, a 13.5% increase from the previous year. This marks the first time the surplus exceeded $10 billion (approximately 15 trillion won). Japan accounted for $1.1 billion of this total, making it the third-largest market after the United States ($2.2 billion) and China ($2 billion).

Korean cosmetics companies are accelerating their efforts in the Japanese market. APR, for example, is expanding its offline presence and boosting local sales through online promotions. Notably, APR's sales during Japan's largest online discount event, 'Mega Wari,' in the fourth quarter of last year surged by over 180% compared to the same period the previous year.

Industry insiders believe that K-Beauty has moved beyond a temporary trend in Japan and will continue to grow. A beauty industry representative stated, "In the past, K-Beauty consumption was mainly driven by Hallyu fans and tourists visiting Korea, but now it is expanding into drugstores and convenience stores. As trust in K-Beauty rises among young Japanese consumers, the growth of Korean cosmetics brands in Japan is expected to continue for the foreseeable future."