South Korean small and medium-sized business owners with a defaced image of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shout slogans during a rally calling for boycott of Japanese products in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, South Korea, on July 15, 2019.Dozens of South Korean small-business owners rallied in South Korea’s capital on Monday calling for boycotts of Japanese consumer goods to protest Tokyo’s move to tighten high-tech exports to its neighbour.
South Korea is concerned that the strengthened Japanese export controls of photoresists and other sensitive materials that are mainly used for manufacturing semiconductors and display screens could potentially hurt its export-dependent economy.Japan’s measure, which went into effect earlier this month, has stoked public anger in South Korea, where many believe Japan still hasn’t fully acknowledged responsibility for atrocities committed during its colonial occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945.
“We will continue boycotting the consumption and distribution of Japanese products until Japan’s government and the Abe administration apologizes and withdraws its economic retaliation,” Kim said, referring to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. South Korea says its export controls are working just fine and that Japan is retaliating against South Korean court rulings that ordered Japanese companies to compensate aging South Korean victims for forced labour during World War II.