Bae Yong-joon

What strikes me most about Bae Yong-joon is not just that Winter Sonata made him the face of the Korean Wave, but how cleanly he walked away. Few stars at the peak of their fame have the discipline to stop acting and reinvent themselves as a business leader, yet he did exactly that with KeyEast. I read that gentle, composed screen presence as a kind of quiet confidence, and the 2008 Order of Cultural Merit feels well earned. He shaped how an entire generation of Japanese fans saw Korean drama, and that cultural footprint outlives any single role.

Name (English)

Bae Yong-joon

Name (Japanese)

ペ・ヨンジュン

Reading

ぺ・よんじゅん

Born

August 29, 1972 (age 53)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Rat

Origin

Mapo District, South Korea

Occupation

actor / film actor / model / television actor / businessperson

University

Sungkyunkwan University

Awards & achievements

• 2008 Order of Cultural Merit, 5th class

• Official sitehttp://www.byj.co.kr/
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/yongjoon_bae/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bae%20Yong-joon
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9A%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A8%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A5%E3%83%B3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q334504

Tags

• actor
• film actor
• model

Last updated

2026-06-21

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.