TOKYO (AP) -- Koreans have a harsh history in Japan. Their homeland was under Tokyo's colonist yoke for 35 years, and in Japan they still face discrimination and cruel stereotypes. But thanks to the mega-hit South Korean soap opera "Winter Sonata," Koreans these days also face something quite different in Japan: adulation.

On visits to Tokyo, the show's two main actors -- Bae Yong-joon, 32, and Choi Ji-woo, 29 -- are mobbed by swooning fans, and sales of chewing gum and chocolates they advertise have surged.

Japanese are filling Korean language classes, crooning Korean pop songs at karaoke clubs and buying out flights to Seoul to visit places featured in the drama.

Ayumi Udagawa, 30, has gone a step further. Like thousands of women in recent months, she has registered with a matchmaking agency for the ultimate hot-selling item: a Korean husband.

"When I watched the drama, Korean men were so attractive and different from Japanese men," she gushed. "I want to meet a masculine, passionate Korean man."

The phenomenon is quite a twist -- if a superficial one -- for the image of Koreans in Japan, which colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910 until 1945.

Koreans in Japan have struggled for decades against stereotypes depicting them as irrational, untrustworthy and violent. Despite deep cultural similarities, the two countries -- and their people -- remain far apart.

"This is perhaps the first time Korea is admired so widely by ordinary Japanese," said Chung Dae-kyun, Tokyo Metropolitan University professor of Korean studies. "It's a very positive development for both countries."

"Winter Sonata," produced by the Korean Broadcasting System, was televised twice on satellite channels in Japan starting in April 2003.

But the Korea boom took off after the soap opera was shown on national broadcaster NHK's regular programming this summer, winning nearly a 24 percent viewership despite its late Saturday night time slot. NHK has scheduled another airing of the series in December due to the overwhelming popularity of it.

The soap opera has won over Japanese fans with heavy doses of schmaltz and an endless number of twists and turns.

Bae and Choi's teenage romance is cut short when Bae dies in a car accident. Years later, Choi spots a man who looks just Bae, falls in love again, and sure enough, it turns out Bae didn't die after all -- he survived, but with amnesia. Then he has another car accident that brings back his memories of Choi. But then he goes blind ...

The plot may require superhuman efforts at suspension of disbelief. But many Japanese say the unpolished production style and the characters' sincere passion and conservative values remind them of a more innocent Japan that vanished in the wealth and materialism of the 1980s.

"I was impressed by how young people in the drama respected their parents, just like we were taught as children," said 51-year-old housewife Hideko Ezaki. "Such traditional values have faded here, and they seemed fresh."

And Japanese women -- particularly the over-40 housewife crowd -- have gone bonkers for actor Bae Yong-joon, who attracts screaming crowds wherever he goes. Copies of his glasses and his scarf, and even wigs of his bushy hair, are popular items in Japan.

"Sir Yong is my prince," enthused Itoe Nakayama, a 71-year-old housewife, as she stood beside a life-size cutout of smiling Bae in a chewing gum advertisement at a recent Tokyo exhibit.

The TV show has hit against the backdrop of rising interest in Korea for Japanese. South Korean entertainment and culture gained popularity among young Japanese following the joint Japan-Korea hosting of the 2002 World Cup, and Japanese TV and movies are increasingly working with Korean themes.

The fervor, however, seems limited to native Koreans, while attitudes toward ethnic Koreans living in Japan -- who have been here for decades and suffer discrimination in jobs and employment -- have been untouched.

The long-term implications of the boom on Japan-South Korea relations are uncertain. In trend-conscious Japan, fads boom and bust in rapid cycles.

But for now, the Korea fad is making some Japanese more aware of their neighbors.

For Japanese who for so long have looked to the United States and Europe for culture and travel, the discovery that South Korea shares so much in common with them has been a pleasant surprise.

"We're so close on the map, and there are similar words in Korean and Japanese," said Udagawa, the matchmaker customer. "If we get used to one another, I'm sure we can be friends."