South Korea defeated Japan's LS Kitami 11-6 in the Pacific-Asia Curling Championships women's gold-medal game on Thursday.
While the Japan women's team on Wednesday had already secured a spot at next spring's women's curling championship, the country's men's team SC Karuizawa beat Australia 11-4 in the bronze-medal game to earn a top-three finish and a berth at the men's worlds.
In the women's final at Erina Ice Arena, Japan trailed 8-6 in the ninth end when the defending champion led by skip Kim Eun-jung grabbed three points to pull away for victory, and South Korea continued its strong form with three months to go until the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
"The game revealed (our weakness in) team communication and weight judgment. I hope we can learn from this defeat," Japan skip Satsuki Fujisawa said.
The Japan team is made up of Fujisawa, third Chinami Yoshida, second Mari Motohashi, lead Yurika Yoshida and alternate Yumi Suzuki.
The men's team features lead Kosuke Morozumi, skip Yusuke Morozumi, vice-skip Tetsuro Shimizu, second Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, lead Kosuke Morozumi and alternate Kosuke Hirata.
The women's world championship takes place March 17-25 in North Bay, Ontario, while the men's meet will be held March 31-April 8 in Las Vegas.