Opening ceremony of the 2025 Korea Beauty & Medical Fair in Tokyo, Japan, Friday (KTO)
The Korea Tourism Organization announced on Monday its hosting of the 2025 Korea Beauty & Medical Fair in Japan, the largest source of medical tourists to Korea, through Tuesday.
The fair opened in Tokyo on Friday, drawing over 10,000 visitors, and continues in Osaka through Tuesday. Japanese actor Kyoko Hasegawa was appointed as Korea’s honorary tourism ambassador and, during a talk, shared her travel experiences in Korea.
According to KTO, Japan accounted for over 37 percent of Korea’s 1.17 million medical tourists in 2024, or about 440,000 people. The organization said it aims to expand beyond dermatology, a favorite among Japanese visitors, into new fields such as ophthalmology, plastic surgery and traditional Korean medicine. It also seeks to engage male travelers seeking aesthetic care.
The Tokyo event, held under the slogan “Updating Myself Through Korean Travel,” featured makeup talk shows, Korean beauty and wellness experience zones, and one-on-one consultations with Korean medical institutions. Influencers, including a popular beauty YouTuber and a comedy duo, joined the stage to introduce the latest Korean beauty trends.
The tourism organization also hosted a business-to-business Travel Mart at the Westin Tokyo on Friday, bringing together 31 Korean medical and wellness institutions and Japanese travel agencies. The three-day event generated 730 consultations, with projected sales reaching 1.9 billion won ($1.33 million), according to KTO.
In Osaka, the program includes seminars with Korean medical specialists, promotional booths and personalized makeup sessions based on color analysis.
“Korea has strong competitiveness across a wide range of aesthetic medical fields,” said an official from KTO. “We will continue to promote Korea’s strengths to Japanese individual travelers to achieve both quantitative and qualitative growth in medical tourism.”
yoohong@heraldcorp.com
AloJapan.com