'No Japan' is no more as Koreans ditch the boycott for personal preferences

Economy

Published: 25 Mar. 2023, 07:00 Updated: 27 Mar. 2023, 11:23

'No Japan' is no more as Koreans ditch the boycott for personal preferences

People shop at a Uniqlo store in Seoul on March 15. [SOHN DONG-JOO]

The once vacant, silent stores of Uniqlo are again bustling with customers holding new shirts up to themselves in the mirror. Asahi and Sapporo beers are displayed next to Cass and Hite, and the cinema is filled with moviegoers determined to find out how a Japanese high schooler named Suzume will save the world.

Uniqlo was one of the most heavily boycotted brands in Korea only a few years ago, especially after the company aired an ad some Koreans believed mocked wartime forced labor victims.

But the nation's anti-Japan sentiment has lost most of its momentum, in line with the thawing Korea-Japan ties and young customers’ tendency to put more value on product quality rather than country of origin.

When the Korea JoongAng Daily visited one of its locations in Incheon on March 18, every isle had a customer shopping for clothes or accessories. The staff at the cashiers were busy taking payments and the fitting rooms had a mountain of clothes waiting to be organized and put back on display. All 10 fitting rooms were occupied.

Park Ji-hoon, 29, was waiting in line for the fitting room when he said he began revisiting Uniqlo stores last year. By his definition, he is a “passive participant” of the boycott, only visiting during the promotion sales period.

A Uniqlo store in Seoul is closed for renovation in August 2019. [NEWS1]

“I tried not to buy its products when the boycott was intense and settled with local brands, like TopTen and SPAO, that offered alternatives,” Park said.

“But now I mostly just think about cost-effectiveness,” he added, holding in his hand a basket of discounted Heattech products, Uniqlo’s thermal clothing line. Park mostly buys Uniqlo underclothes and socks because they fit him better than other brands.

“I thought the boycotts were getting out of hand when some people were pressuring others to take part in the boycott,” said Park as he recalled posts online about radical activists publicly criticizing those who purchased Uniqlo clothes. Park thinks no one should be pressured to join a social movement.

“Yes, the cause [of the boycott] is good, but let people buy and wear whatever they want.”

Another Uniqlo store, at Yongsan Station on March 15, had shoppers looking through the new Spring/Summer products by the twos and threes.

Roh Hyun-jung, 26, was one of those people who felt pressured by others.

“I only visited at vacant hours during the weekdays and carried a bag to hide the clothes,” Roh said. “I tried to buy from the online store as much as possible.”

Now, she visits the stores whenever she wants and does not bring her own bag.

People shop at a Uniqlo store in Seoul on March 15. [SOHN DONG-JOO]

“The products that I wanted were rarely out of stock a couple of years ago, but now I sometimes have to make multiple visits to different stores to find something in stock,” she said, joking that she sometimes misses the fully-stocked days.

“The stores are run by Korean managers and Korean staff, so at the end of the day, Koreans are hurt from the boycott as well,” Roh said.

Roh believes that people who boycott should not criticize others that don’t, and vice versa.

“I want to use my money to buy what I want.”

Whether people joined the boycott voluntarily or were pressured into it, the number of the store's customers did drop at the end of 2019, according to a part-timer who wished to remain anonymous.

“I wasn’t working at the time, but I heard from other staff who worked from 2019 say that our store received very few customers back then. Some only did storekeeping and cleaning tasks even on weekend shifts.”

Customers who did visit the store at the time either came alone or were foreigners, she added.

“Nowadays, many come in groups and there’s usually a queue at the cashier on the weekends,” said the part-timer, adding she's worried about the crowd she may have to face during the upcoming spring promotion sales.

Uniqlo had 190 stores in Korea in August 2019, which dropped to 126 in 2022. Branches that closed include the landmark four-story Myeongdong branch and the Jamsil branch, the first branch in Korea.

Uniqlo’s domestic distributor FRL Korea logged a revenue of 704 billion won ($542 million) in fiscal year 2022 — between September 2021 and August 2022 — despite fewer stores, up 20.9 percent on year. Its operating profit was 115 billion won, a 116.8 percent on-year increase.

The fast-fashion clothing company’s revenue recorded 1.38 trillion won in 2018. It halved to 630 billion in 2019 and dived further to 583 billion in 2020.

Pokémon souvenirs are displayed at a souvenir shop in CGV Yongsan in central Seoul on March 15. [SOHN DONG-JOO]

Japanese cosmetics were another boycott target a few years back.

“I remember having to rearrange the displayed products, replacing Japanese skincare brands on the eye-level shelves with domestic brands,” said an employee of a health and beauty shop who wished to remain anonymous.

Customers no longer had to bend over to see Japanese facial cleansers, makeup and sheet masks in the store in Yongsan.

“Some people used to ask if the product is Japanese, but I haven’t seen anyone do that for a while.”

During the period of the boycott followed by the pandemic, L’Oreal Group’s beauty brand Shu Uemura, named after and founded by a Japanese makeup artist, terminated its 16-year-long business in Korea in September 2021. Japanese beauty brand DHC also exited the market in the same month after 20 years.

For some, Japanese animated films topping box offices have signaled the end for “No Japan.”

Shin, 30, was looking at “Suzume” souvenirs at CGV Yongsan with his girlfriend.

“I couldn’t ask my girlfriend to go watch ‘Weathering with You’ together when it was in theaters during the boycott,” Shin said, adding that he did manage to persuade her into watching it on Netflix in January 2021.

“But she became a fan of ‘Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train’ when it premiered in Korea in 2021 and asked me to go watch ‘The First Slam Dunk,’ ‘Demon Slayer: To the Swordsmith Village’ and ‘Suzume’ when they were released this year.”

A poster for ″Demon Slayer: To the Swordsmith Village″ is displayed on an electronic screen in CGV Yongsan in central Seoul on March 15. [SOHN DONG-JOO]

When “Weathering with You” directed by Makoto Shinkai was released in October 2019, it was expected to sell as many tickets as “Your Name” (2016), which was the most-watched Japanese animated film at the time, also directed by Shinkai.

It did eventually rank as the 10th most-watched Japanese animated film, but its distributor Media Castle blamed the boycott for lower-than-expected ticket sales, claiming that many companies had turned down marketing deals.

As was the case with said Japan-related products, Japanese car and beer imports are showing a comeback as well, though the figures are still short of pre-pandemic levels.

The number of Lexus cars sold in February rose 183 percent on year and Toyota by 149 percent. Lexus was the fourth most sold imported car brand in Korea last month, and Toyota was the seventh. Lexus ranked ninth in the same month the previous year, and Toyota ranked 11th.

Japanese beer imports in January reached $2 million, the highest figure in three and a half years and 334 times greater than the September 2019 low.

Flights to Japan surged this year, too. The number of passengers to Japan from Jan. 1 to March 16 reached 1.35 million, exceeding last year’s total of 1.29 million won.

People stand in front of travel agency counters in Incheon International Airport on March 18. [NEWS1]

"Boycotts typically need a 'trigger,' but we haven't had that for a while," said Prof. Lee June-young, a professor of consumer science at Sangmyung University. "Recent events that were welcomed by the public, such as Japanese animations, and the pent-up demand for overseas trips have diluted the negative sentiment and worked against the boycott."

The movement loses drive, especially in the cultural contents sector, when it touches on personal preferences, Prof. Lee added.

"Boycotts can break out again in the case of another social or political event," said the professor, noting boycotts are triggered to reflect such events rather than the customers' rights and interests.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]