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Japanese consumer goods gain popularity despite Fukushima wastewater release
A shelf at a supermarket in Seoul display Japanese beer for sale, Oct. 2. Yonhap
By Ko Dong-hwan
Son Byeong-wook, a 38-year-old resident of central Seoul, often looks for Asahi beer at his local convenience store whenever guests drop by his home. The Japanese beer has been his favorite brew and no one has scolded him so far for buying the popular brand.
"I buy the beers almost out of habit now," says Son even after the Japanese government stirred the world by dumping radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean last August.
Koh Yeon-jeong, 40, a housewife living in Seoul, has been watching the pennies and realized that her personal shopping should be controlled more. Raising two pre-school children, she has been visiting department stores during her free time to relieve her parenting stress via spending sprees on things to wear.
Now, she has to fix these impulsive practices and start seeking somewhere cheaper yet still big enough to offer a variety of choices. When she found a Uniqlo store inside a department store, she went inside and signed up to become a member to take advantage of discounts.
"To me, securing savings for my family is more important than joining the No-Japan movement that boycotts Japanese imports to protest the dumping," she said.
Despite fierce political campaigns by lawmakers from opposition parties and protests by environmentalists against the Japanese government's discharge of the radioactive wastewater, the controversial dumping started and saw its initial phase completed last September.
President Yoon Suk Yeol and the ruling People Power Party assured the public that the discharged water was scientifically proven to be safe. But that didn't resolve doubts among Koreans questioning the veracity of the scientific data given by the Japanese government.
Disappointment and hatred against the Japanese government were expected to translate to Korean consumers boycotting Japanese imported products. It was already happening in China where a trade ban against Japanese seafood was put in place and thousands of fans at a local soccer stadium chanted anti-Japan slogans in unison.
But so far, no such picture has emerged in Korea. Instead, quite the opposite has been reported. Sales of Japanese products have been steadily doing better making or even breaking records among local consumers.
The items range from beer to food, clothes, tourism, cars and even Japanese pop culture. Recent data from the Korea Customs Service showed that the total amount of imported Japanese beers last July was almost 8,000 tons, up 239 percent from last year and the highest July figure since 2000. The import cost for last July was over $6.77 million, the second-highest since July 2017.
Incheon International Airport'S Terminal 1 is filled with travelers waiting to get boarding tickets on July 2. Many travelers from the country this year flew to Japan, taking advantage of a weak yen. Newsis
The increase in Japanese beer imports was clearly reflected on liquor shelves in convenience stores in Korea where Asahi, Sapporo and Kirin cans have been outnumbering other products. One of Korea's major convenience stores said sales of its Japanese beers last August jumped 304 percent from the previous month.
Japan's Uniqlo closed 60 shops in Korea over the past three years due to a local boycott campaign after the Japanese government banned the exporting of certain manufacturing parts to Korea. But the brand recovered last year, seeing a year-on-year revenue increase of 31 percent and a sales increase of 73 percent. This year saw the brand expanding stores in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province and Busan.
Toyota's luxury sub-brand Lexus this year saw a year-on-year sales increase of 125 percent, with the expectation now of achieving 10,000 sales this year. Korean consumers also contributed to the biggest portion of foreign tourists visiting Japan this year ― 3.75 million out of 13 million from January to July ― according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
Earlier this month when statutory holidays including Chuseok lasted almost a week, Hana Tour, a local Korean tourism agency, saw its Japanese package reservation rate increase by 35 percent from the previous month.
An official from Korea's ready-made food and beverage manufacturing industry said the high sales of Japanese beers in Korea could be due to the brands' rigorous promotion. The weak yens also contributed to increasing Korean travelers selecting Japan as their destination, he added.
"Major social issues in Korea like the dumping of the Fukushima radioactive wastewater haven't got into the Korean consumers' heads deep enough to prevent their so-called reasonable spending," a food industry official said.