We examined the genetic variability of Asian chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) populations using nuclear microsatellite (ms) DNA analysis with four polymorphic loci (OKM4, OKM5, OKM7, and OKM8) in 397 individuals from nine populations, including one in Korea, seven in Japan, and one in Russia. The msDNA gene diversity was highest in the Japanese populations, suggesting greater genetic variation in the populations in Japan than in populations in Korea and Russia. The pairwise $F_{ST}$ estimates based on our msDNA data showed that the Korean population was genetically different from the Japanese and Russian populations, and there were higher $F_{ST}$ estimates between Hokkaido and Honshu populations than between other population pairs. A neighbor-joining tree showed that the Korean population was distinct from two other clusters, representing the populations in Honshu and the populations in Hokkaido and Russia. These results suggest that the observed population genetic patterns of Asian chum salmon might be influenced by low or restricted gene flow.