South Korean Group to Stop Selling Japanese Products

July 7, 2019

Seoul- An association of self-employed businesses in South Korea said Friday that it will launch a campaign to stop selling Japanese products, in protest to Japan's stricter controls on semiconductor materials exports to South Korea.

The association will continue the campaign until Japan withdraws or announces a plan to withdraw the measure, one of its members said. The export controls were introduced on Thursday.

Releasing a statement to announce the campaign in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, the group claimed that the Japanese measure represents retaliatory action against South Korea over issues related to so-called comfort women and wartime labor that resulted from Japan's wartime aggression.

Japan is orchestrating retaliation by trade, instead of reflecting on its past behavior, the statement said.

The term comfort women refers to those, mainly Koreans, who were allegedly forced into prostitution for Japanese troops before and during World War II. A South Korean foundation supporting former Korean comfort women, which was set up based on a landmark Japan-South Korea accord in 2015 to fully and irreversibly resolve the issue, has been dissolved despite strong opposition from the Japanese government.

Over wartime labor, South Korea's supreme court last year ordered Japanese companies to pay compensation to Koreans who were requisitioned to work for them during the war. The rulings led to further deterioration in the bilateral relationship.

The Japanese government takes the position that the wartime labor issue was resolved under a 1965 agreement on property and claims.

Meanwhile, a petition calling for boycotting Japanese products and refraining from travel to Japan was posted on the website of the South Korean presidential office.

The petition, which also urges the South Korean government to take retaliatory action against Japan, has attracted support from over 25,000 people. Jiji Press