>>84488580Korea has magnitudes more gyopos, i.e. diaspora members having returned to Korea.
Japan is culturally isolated, and is getting more isolated starting from the mid 2010s. Despite Japanese media becoming arguably more influenced by overseas media, the end consumer is insulated by the process of derivation, fusion and naturalization of said influences, and given the lack of exposure to the original material is unaware of the fact. However, there exists a counter theory that the Japanese demand (both sides agree it's limited) for overseas culture has turned to Korea at the expense of the West.
Either way, my personal observations would suggest English is about as useless in the daily life of a Korean as that of a Japanese. The difference is demographic (gyopos) and cultural. Even though most everything gets localized into Korean, there's more interest in consuming Western and Japanese media, more general awareness in the world outside, unlike Japan.
As mechanistic and bad Korean English education is, it's worse in Japan. Most younger Koreans understand a surprising amount of English (they usually do better at formal styles though), they just don't want to engage in it for various reasons. Most younger Japanese don't understand a lick of English. The reason is, English education in Japan is completely perfunctory, the examination standards are way lower than in Korea, and your English exam scores matter way less. Whereas in Korea you have hagwon drilling done by Korean teachers, in Japan it's eikaiwas with grifter ALTs.
