Brief Consumer: A Comparison of Recent Visitors Trend to Korea and Japan and more

In this briefing:

1. A Comparison of Recent Visitors Trend to Korea and Japan
2. This Week in Blockchain & Cryptos: Revisiting LINE’s Crypto Plans

1. A Comparison of Recent Visitors Trend to Korea and Japan

• In this report, we compare the recent dynamic foreign tourists trend to Korea and Japan. In January 2019, the number of foreign visitors to Japan rose 7.5% YoY to 2.69 million. A total of 0.78 million from South Korea visited Japan in January (DOWN 3% YoY) followed by 0.75 million people from China (up 19.3% YoY).
• According to Korea Ministry of Economy & Finance (MoEF), the number of people from China to Korea increased 35.1% YoY in January 2019.
• As evidenced by the better than expected Chinese visitors to Korea and worse than expected South Korean visitors to Japan in January, there is an increasing indication that this trend could continue in 2019. Many of the Korean related cosmetics stocks have positively reacted to the recent data. One of the interesting trades to be long on a basket of Korean cosmetics related stocks and be short on a basket of Japanese cosmetics related names. 

2. This Week in Blockchain & Cryptos: Revisiting LINE’s Crypto Plans

LINE Corp (3938 JP) is one of the top Japanese names in our “Watchlist” of listed companies in Japan and South Korea that are adopting blockchain technologies or have exposure to cryptocurrencies. 

Since being added to the “Watchlist” in May last year (2018), LINE has launched a cryptocurrency, a cryptocurrency exchange, and a blockchain venture fund. In this note, we revisit LINE’s blockchain and cryptocurrency plans.