In July 2019, the Japanese government said they would not export three major components of semiconductor to South Korea. That was the start of the "No Japan" boycott in south Korea. However, nowadays, some Japanese websites are saying that Korea's "No Japan" boycott failed. What caused the "No Japan" boycott, and why Japanese people said that the boycott movement failed? 

▲ `No Japan` boycott`s slogan

On June 17, 2019, SK Materials said that they started making HF gases which rely 100 percent on foreign countries, and they started supplying these gases to other countries. On the other hand, South Korea's importing rate from Japan decreased to ten percent last in May. Then, the registration record of Japanese cars in South Korea decreased to 62 percent in that month, and Nissan was pulled out from South Korea this year. Also, the Japanese beer importing rate decreased to 87 percent last May. However, some products are rising in South Korea. For example, Nintendo Switch's rate has risen to 30 percent. And gaming rate has risen to 57 percent because of the effect of COVID-19. Moreover, the ABC Mart in South Korea is still in progress when it comes to the sales of their footwear products. Namwook Kim, a citizen in South Korea, said that "Many people do not know which is a Japanese brand and which is not. One of them is the products of ABC-mart. ABC-Mart is a Japanese company that sells footwear products to Koreans. Many people do not know that is a Japanese company."

▲ Korean Visitors to Japan

In South Korea, the "No Japan" boycott is still ongoing and Japan's attitude is still not changing. Also in South Korea, netizens are arguing about allocating masks to Japan. In this time off pandemic we should not fight with each other, Japan just needs to apologize for their dark past and territorial disputes. Moreover, South Korea just need to open their mind to Japan. I hope South Korea and Japan will have a good relationship in the future.

by Nam Guemin