S. Koreans shun Japanese beer, travel, cars as disputes grow
A widespread anti-Japan boycott has gained ground in South Korea since Tokyo on July 1 tightened its control of exports of three chemicals used to manufacture semiconductors and display screens — key export items for South Korea. The boycott could worsen as Japan is expected to expand its export curbs to other materials as early as Friday by removing South Korea from a list of countries granted preferential trade status.
South Korea accuses Japan of retaliating over local court rulings last year that ordered two Japanese companies to pay compensation to former Korean employees for forced labor during Tokyo’s 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula. Japan has denied that, saying its action was taken out of national security concerns. Many South Koreans still harbor against their former colonial master. A recent survey suggested 80% of South Koreans are reluctant to buy Japanese products.
There have been some consequences. HanaTour, the largest travel company in South Korea, said a daily number of reservations for Japan trips has dropped to about 400-500 from 1,000-1,200 late last month. Other tour agencies have reported similar or lower booking figures for Japan tours.
The sales of Japanese beer from July 1-24 declined by about 38% from a month ago. Customs officials said the imports of Japanese cars from July 1-20 was estimated at about $46 million — a 32% decrease from the same period last year. Two men in their 70s have set themselves on fire in an apparent protest against Japan. One died and the other, who set himself ablaze on Thursday, remained in critical condition.
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Everything Abe has arranged over the last few weeks has been a calculated insult to South Korea. JTBC reports Japan’s removal of South Korea from the “white list” of preferred trade status countries is scheduled to be implemented on August 15, Korean Independence Day, the day it was liberated from Japanese colonial rule by the United States.
Japanese lawyer Jaima Hidekazi stated " private rights of claimants cannot be extinguished by the agreement of two governments."
(Source- JTBC News July 30)
The former president of the Japanese Bar Association, Utsunomiya Kenji, noted that the rights of Chinese victims of Japanese wartime forced labor were ruled valid by the Japanese Supreme Court in 2007. A third Japanese attorney, Fujida Masatosi, interviewed by JTBC on the program, has started a petition thus far signed by 3000 Japanese including 12 lawyers which calls for the removal of trade restraints recently imposed by Japan in retaliation for the Korean forced labor litigation decisions. The program noted that 58 percent of the Japanese surveyed in a poll supported proposed Japanese trade restraints against South Korea.
Masatosi also asked why does the Abe government fail to refer the 2007 decision by the Japanese high court recognizing the legitimacy of Chinese slave labor claims. Of course, it weakens not only Japan's arguments but also the LDP appeal to anti- Korean public sentiment in Japan. Japan's stated position on the connected slave labor issues is regarded as duplicitous. In one situation, China, Japan acknowledges its war crimes, in the other, Korea, it doesn't. Abe's LDP party failed in the July 21 elections to achieve the necessary two thirds majority in the Upper House to ratify an amendment to the Japanese constitution to remove limits on military activities to self defense. Currently, Abe is manipulating this trade dispute, falsely based upon national security claims with South Korea, in order to generate more support among politicians from third parties to so amend the constitution to remove checks on Japan's military powers.
In a previous broadcast on July 29 JTBC revealed documents which showed that the government of Japan had been trying to derail the South Korea judicial cases based on slave labor war crimes against Japanese corporations in Korea by exerting pressure on the Blue House behind the scenes for years.
The central issue is whether the private claims of the individual victims of Japanese war crimes were foreclosed by the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations. The current Supreme Court of South Korea says they were not. South Korea is a democracy with separation of powers. The executive cannot change the Supreme Court ruling. Neither can Japan.