IIRC, a Nexon Korea developer said in an interview that Japan had better designers and better art departments than Korea, where they are better in engineering and programming, so it makes sense (kinda).
Here:
Here:
Interview Wrote:One thing that I've been kind of speculating about and I'm curious to know what you think; the big problem in Japan is that they lack programmers. They're good at design and producing but programming and optimization is their weakness. Whereas in Korea, you’re very good at systems and service but seem to kind of lack designers. Perhaps management is not structured so that designers can lead a project. That's the feeling that I have been getting. I'm curious to know what you think about that.
JYM: Your view is correct. I believe that the Korean online gaming industry was actually started by programmers, so that's why naturally we're led by programmers. 90% of the past products were led by programmers. Right now, still about 50% of the products are led by programmers. But it's changing.