In recent years, international relationships in dentistry have grown stronger through journals, books, academies, seminars, researcher exchanges and so forth. Korea and Japan are neighbours in East Asia. However, no comparison of the dental education systems of the two countries has been published. Therefore, the authors have provided the present comparison to promote mutual understanding and to familiarise dentists around the world with dental education in these two countries. The number of dentists, life expectancy at birth, and number of decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) at age 12 years in Korea and Japan are summarised.