Though the Korean boom in Japan sparked by the Korean TV drama Winter Sonata seems to have cooled, Korean dramas appear to have taken firm root in Japan.

IRIS, a spy drama featuring hunky actor Lee Byung Hun that pulled average ratings of about 30 per cent when it aired in South Korea, is scheduled to air at 9pm Wednesdays on TBS for about six months. A TBS spokesman said the broadcaster has been planning to air this drama in prime time for five years and invested in its production. The company will not stress its Korean origin and is targeting a broader audience than the middle-aged women who make up the bulk of viewers of South Korean dramas.

Considering the drop-off in the number of people signing up for tours to visit locations in South Korea where popular dramas and movies were filmed, some think the South Korean boom in Japan is over. However, many South Korean dramas are still being aired. In the week from February 14 to 20, five South Korean dramas aired on seven terrestrial channels, and 36 such programmes were offered on 11 satellite digital channels, not including the Star Channel movie channels. They are also popular fare on local TV stations.

The South Korean historical drama Yi San now running on NHK BS2 satellite channel garnered an average audience rating of 2.7 per cent for the 29 episodes aired as of Sunday (February 21), according to NHK. The figure is the highest for a first run among South Korean dramas on NHK satellite channels including Dae Jang Geum, which pulled in 2.32 per cent. Yi San will be rebroadcast from June.

When its run was canceled on August 23 for a special programme on the House of Representatives election, NHK received about 6,000 inquiries and complaints from viewers. Many NHK staffers feel that Yi San now pulls in more viewers than Winter Sonata.

Fuji TV has set aside a special time slot it calls Hanryu (South Korean) Alfa on weekday afternoons since January, in which it airs popular South Korean dramas, including My Lovely Sam Soon, drawing about 5 per cent of the audience, which is relatively high for that time slot.

"Purchasing these programmes is cheaper than producing new dramas, and the copyright process for buying South Korean dramas is simpler than that for old Japanese dramas," said an executive of a BS digital broadcast station.

Meanwhile, South Korean producers are now making dramas with the Japanese market in mind due to its big potential for selling related products such as DVDs and photo books.

Another part of the appeal of South Korean dramas is that they can tackle various themes at multiple levels because they consist of more episodes than Japanese dramas, said Noriko Araya, the chief producer at the NHK Program Development Center.

Hideki Tanaka, the chief editor of Hanryu Pia, a bimonthly magazine about the South Korean entertainment scene, said many South Korean dramas have universal, easy-to-follow and well-considered stories with themes that could attract the whole Asian market.

"We used to have American dramas in prime time. But from now on, we might see more Korean dramas," he said.