South Korean companies drawing more attention in Japan

In Japan, a lot of companies have been struggling for many years to build new business models in order to get out of the prolonged recession. In contrast, South Korean companies, especially well-known corporations, have been recently doing well. Some of them believe that now is the time to enter the Japanese market, and they started entering competitive battles for market share in Japan. Under these circumstances, TV news programs often report on South Korean companies, suggesting that there are things that Japanese companies can learn from them. It's also been reported that the Korean economy is improving.

Every time I hear of South Korean companies going strong, I remember complaints that many South Korean classmates would always make when I was studying Mandarin in Guangzhou, China a few years ago. They would say that it was difficult even for graduates from prestigious universities to find a stable, good job in South Korea, where it's well-known that your academic background can determine so large part of your future and life that a lot of children are engaging in a fierce battle to get in prestigious universities. Because of this, many of my Korean classmates were willing to find a job in China. They seemed to believe that they could have a better life in China. They would also say that it was very common for young people to study abroad since they were required to master at least two foreign languages to get a good job in Korea.

According to the news, both the South Korean government and companies are making great efforts to provide comfortable working environments to non-Koreans to attract qualified people worldwide to Korea. Korean companies appear to enhance their competitiveness in the global market by luring qualified people worldwide to Korea, and Koreans who are willing to or are forced to live abroad support Korean companies outside Korea.

Anyway, I hope that ordinary Korean people like my classmates are enjoying the fact that the Korean economy is getting stronger.