🇰🇷 Korea Trip Report – Emerging Market Skeptic

I have finally gotten to writing a detailed trip report covering my first visit to Korea late last Spring as I had frequent flyer miles on China Airlines (TPE: 2610) to use up (meaning a long stopover in Taipei). I have pretty much been everywhere in SE Asia plus Sri Lanka along with many places in China and especially Taiwan (from doing multi-day stopovers); but hadn’t yet visited Japan (until a few years ago) or Korea.

My perception of both countries was that it would be difficult to get around (the language & writing barriers) and expensive to stay for at least a few weeks. Bear in mind that I have found travel in China to be fairly easy (thanks to the Pinyin writing everywhere along with Ctrip) e.g. I travelled all over the former Manchuria from Dalian to Harbin before COVID where not many Western tourists go.

I did some previous trip reports covering the first time I had travelled around Japan (tourist filled Tokyo & Kyoto) which turned out to be relatively easy and not particularly expensive (the Yen was also at a record low at around Y150 to US$1):

I have to say that I was blown away by Korea and even my parents commented that it looked like one of the nicest places I had been to based on the pictures I took.

While nothing compares to Kyoto (you need at least a month there to see everything), Seoul has far more interesting things to do (that are often free e.g. museums, etc + very very helpful tourism offices/kiosks everywhere) than Tokyo while Busan is absolutely spectacular – easily ranking with San Francisco, Cape Town or Rio de Janeiro for it’s natural setting alone. Even Seoul has a somewhat nicer natural setting (a river with mountains both inside and surrounding the city) than Tokyo.

I would dare say that if you had to choose, Seoul/Busan are a must visit over or at least before visiting the rest of Japan (and Korean food is incredible).

The rest of this post will be divided into two posts so that the trip report portion (mostly a travel rather than stock report) can be left un-paywalled (to be commented on by anyone with other travel tips) and the stock portion (partially paywalled). It is organized as follows (and after publishing, I will replace the text below with the autogenerated table of contents that also appears on the left side of the screen on desktop browsers):

[Note: On desktop browsers, an autogenerated table of contents will appear on the left side linked to each stock. I will add those links below after publishing/emailing this post…]

Readers can decide whether these insights or summary about these stocks are accurate:

When “analysts” talk about Japan, Korea and China, they often dwell on the demographic challenges. When I visited Tokyo/Kyoto a few years ago, there were plenty of people, including young Japanese/kids and occupied high rises everywhere (but not so much new construction).

However, there seemed to be a bit more new construction in Korea (Taipei construction has also noticeably picked up) post-covid and no doubt due to the AI boom. There are also reports of foreigners buying Korean property (although some curbs have been put in place to stop speculation in Seoul) e.g. Chinese, Taiwanese and Koreans abroad (as American and Canadian cities deteriorate and become too expensive to retire in) and probably foreigners married to Koreans.

Like Tokyo/Kyoto and when you travel between these cities by train, Korea does not look or feel depopulated (maybe because it looks a bit rugged with fewer building spaces) when in or traveling between Seoul/Jeonju/Busan. And despite plenty of social media chatter about the so-called 4B movement (a radical feminist movement whose proponents do not date, marry, have sex with, or have children with men), you will see many young men in uniform doing their military service along with couples, children and people of all ages.

One thing that was noticeable was how many older people are still working (and not yet replaced by foreigners) and how many of them are badly hunched over – this was something that actually got discussed at a hostel I stayed at. I am 6’4’’ and walk fast. I very nearly walked into an elderly Korean so hunched over that she came up to my stomach and I only saw her at the last second! Others staying at the same hostel (including a half German/Egyptian girl studying in Korea who was close to my height) also had similar near misses!

As amusing as this was, this now elderly Korean generation has sadly suffered the most. First under the Japanese occupation and then the Korean War and its aftermath. Then they had to sacrifice to rebuild the country and turn it into the industrial/tech powerhouse it is today only to be hit by the Asian Financial Crisis. Many may not have children who are in position to help them much and they are thus forced to continue working or must scrap by on limited pensions and retirement savings.

With this said, I have commented in the past on other Substacks (e.g. Rei Saito’s KonichiValue Japan which has good coverage of Japan’s demographic problems) that I think the hyperventilation over population declines is “capital” panicking that native born workers will gain leverage over capital to, god forbid, demand better compensation and benefits. And god forbid should asset and specifically housing values not continue to inflate so Blackstone or older boomers lose out on massive capital gains and young families can afford to buy them (instead of being childless renters in tiny apartments). Then you have companies like Wal-Mart who will see their earnings take a hit if the population is not growing and if they can’t hire cheap foreign labor.

But as awful as the Black Death was in Europe, it also made land available to peasants and raised their standard of living which led to more prosperity for them (and leverage over the nobility) and ultimately to the population growing again (enough to populate colonies and create new nations all over the world). The main problem with population declines will be maintaining necessary and unnecessary infrastructure in areas where the population has rapidly declined.

Note that Korea has been able to address this in certain former coal mining districts that now have casinos and other attractions in them for tourists. Otherwise, Koreans are still being drawn to Seoul, Busan and probably a handful of other key cities.

However, this recent tweet and the comments that accompanied are also interesting:

Sadharan Varma@JohnSmithmvlw

Japan is really unique among 1st world nations, as anyone can get a job if they want one. If you graduate from a university then you can become a salaryman where you get taught everything, if you were terrible at studying you can go to a trade school and get a skilled blue collar…

Polymarket @Polymarket

JUST IN: Young South Koreans are increasingly moving to Japan for work, as graduates struggle to find jobs at home. — Reuters

3:13 AM · Aug 3, 2026 · 2M Views

103 Replies · 1.09K Reposts · 19.7K Likes

I suspect if Koreans are moving to Japan in large or at least noticeable numbers, its due to a lower cost of living there or at least in Tokyo (due to zoning laws encouraging more housing) vs. Seoul:

PocketMagnifier@MagnifierPocket

@JohnSmithmvlw I suspect the relatively cheap housing is a large part of this – since Tokyo zoning (I assume the rest of Japan) is by-right if it’s below a certain nuisance level and land plots are easily subdivisable, it leads to cheaper housing.
Please correct me if I’m wrong though

1:38 PM · Aug 3, 2026 · 68.2K Views

4 Replies · 6 Reposts · 227 Likes

Sadharan Varma@JohnSmithmvlw

@MagnifierPocket Yeah rents in Japan are cheaper than in other 1st world countries, partly because of zoning, partly because houses aren’t seen as investments.
That helps a lot when you are young, you can move out relatively easily.

1:46 PM · Aug 3, 2026 · 56.6K Views

2 Replies · 5 Reposts · 228 Likes

However and earlier this year, Rei Saito (KonichiValue Japan) made this reply to a comment of mine on a post of his (What happens if Japan takes in zero…) containing these interesting observations about the differences between Korea and Japan:

Note that when I lived in Manila almost two decades ago, there were an estimated 100,000 or more Koreans living in the Philippines and in Cebu in particular. Koreans would come to the Philippines because it was cheap to go there on vacation, play golf, retire, or to learn English plus the weather was warm, its a reasonably short flight, and the visa policies are relaxed. Then they would start small businesses that often catered to the Korean community or Korean visitors.

Many of these Koreans, I guess, were from the working or lower classes (as I knew a Dutch businessman married to a Korean who said his wife was embarrassed by the ones there – she was probably from the upper or more educated classes…). They were moving to the Philippines as I guess they found living the more relaxed pace of life and starting small businesses there to be easier or requiring less capital than doing the same in Korea.

However, the Filipinos seemed to feel that Koreans looked down on them. Maybe they do but it may also be due to Korean culture (and the language barriers) being so different from Filipino culture that it was harder for them to integrate or mix (despite the Philippines being a melting pot) as they usually formed their own Koreatown enclaves (although Korean churches were apparently making headway by distributing food to the poor). I only remember briefly encountering one Korean married to a local Filipina (he had an internet cafe type of business outside Manila); but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t more intermarriage.

But Koreans did seem to be everywhere e.g. I was surprised when on a mountaineering club trip to Mindanao and we walked through a clothing market in Cagayan de Oro, it was almost all Koreans sitting on chairs on platforms above the clothes where they handled the money (while any Filipino staff handled the clothes and customers) with I think Korean music playing.

According to a resort operator quoted in a 2005 article [[Liberal Times] ‘Korean Wave’ in Philippines], “Koreans are not so sensitive to bad news in the Philippines” (and there is always bad news about the Philippines and Mindanao in particular…). However, Wikipedia’s Koreans in the Philippines says:

As of 2013, statistics of South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade recorded their population at 88,102 people, a fall of 31% since 2009 after a period of rapid growth in the population in the preceding decade.^[2]^[4]

The numbers being down may also be due to Koreans coming and living on tourist visas for extended periods of time (something that can still be done in the Philippines); but not necessarily full time.

One other point I should note: When I did headhunting in Vietnam, there were many Korean companies operating there; but local professionals did not want to work for them because they were absolutely notorious for being cheapskates when it came to paying locals (and I am sure they also had demanding work expectations for staff). Not that many western MNCs were much better when it came to pay; but they could sell themselves for the training and “career growth” opportunities and being “better managed” than local companies. Korean companies could not…

As with Japan, late Spring and early Fall are probably the best times to visit Korea – especially weather-wise. Unless you are into skiing, winter would be far too cold to do much outdoor sightseeing while Summer might be too hot and probably humid.

I went late April to around May 20th and the temperature ranged between 40-90 degrees. The weather on my last day was actually the worst as it was a steady chilly drizzle and I did not want my shoes getting soaked before my flight.

Otherwise and when I arrived, the Chinese fringe trees, rhododendrons, azaleas, etc. were in full bloom and there were still blooms in the various gardens/parks I visited until I left:

The War Memorial of Korea in late April…

Aside from weather considerations:

K-Royal Culture Festival. In addition to daily changing of the guard ceremonies at certain palaces, this is a biannual cultural heritage event held at Seoul’s five royal palaces (Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Deoksugung, Changgyeonggung, Gyeonghuigung) and Jongmyo Shrine. The spring edition was late April to early May when I was there while the fall edition is in early October.

I saw plenty of free cultural performances at the palaces (plus there were other cultural activities that required reservations); but I missed out on performances at night as you need to make ticket reservations for those months in advance. Some of those performances are also reserved for foreigners to promote Korean culture.