Yup, I looked up and sure enough 'Winter Sonata' TV series was shown in Japan in 2003.

Irony is that of the 10 richest peeps in Japan, 2 are Korean descent. One owns big chain of pachinko. https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-pachinko-gambling-ja...

The other is Masayoshi Son

Both were denied the path to a stable salary career life time job at a big firm and so they went on their own way.