Category: Japan

South Korea and Japan cannot even get on the same page in regards to what happened during a working level meeting to resolve their trade dispute:

A row between Japan and South Korea escalated on Saturday, with contested accounts of a frosty meeting the day before that had failed to make progress on a dispute that could threaten global supplies of microchips and smartphone displays.

Tokyo lodged a protest against Seoul, saying it had broken an agreement on what the two sides would disclose from the Friday discussions on Japan’s curbs of exports to Korea of some materials used to make high-tech equipment, said Japanese trade ministry official Jun Iwamatsu.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) also disputed a Korean official’s statement that Seoul had asked Japan on Friday to withdraw the restrictions.

But a Korean trade ministry official shot back that Seoul had “clearly demanded Japan withdraw its trade restrictions at yesterday’s meeting, and there should be no disagreement over that matter with Japan.”

He told Reuters the two sides had discussed what they would disclose but that there was no agreement. (……..)

In response, Iwamatsu, director of METI’s trade control policy division, told a hastily arranged news conference: “We’ve checked the record of the meeting … We found no clear comment asking for the withdrawal.”

Iwamatsu said the two sides had agreed on what they would disclose from the talks but that the Korean official went beyond the agreement. “We believe this is something that affects our relationship of trust,” he said.

Reuters

You can read more at the link, but the dispute about what was disputed is important because Japan wants the working level meeting to be characterized as one where they gave explanation to South Korea for the trade restrictions, not a consultation for problem solving like the ROK has declared it. By declaring it a consultation it expedites the ROK’s efforts to refer this issue to the World Trade Organization while Japan is trying to drag it out.

Korea Times columnist Oh Young-jin believes that President Moon cannot back down from Japanese trade retaliation because he would lose his left wing base:

President Moon Jae-in has shown no sign that a compromise is an option in Japan’s embargo on key items that can halt Korea’s semiconductor making, the nation’s bread-and-butter industry.

Moon faces growing pressure from Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest chip maker for which Japanese technology is pivotal for production, and other industrialists who fear a greater impact if Tokyo increases sanctions. 

Several opinion leaders fault Moon for what they argue is his ham-fisted handling of the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling that ordered Japanese firms to pay compensation to Koreans who were mobilized for materiel production during the Second World War. 

Moon could succumb to these pressures but only at the risk of turning his regime into a political zombie. And history shows the more he stands pat, the greater the chance the nation rallies around him. 

The issues with Japan ― compensation for forced laborers and comfort women, or sex slaves, under Japan’s imperial army ― are integral to the Moon regime’s foundation ― the liquidation of past ills.  (…….)

Moon learned a lesson the hard way when he worked for his mentor and friend, the late President Roh Moo-hyun. Roh alienated his support base by pushing for the free trade agreement with the U.S., long considered part of the conservative agenda. 

Korea Times

Notice the commonality here with South Korean leftists, working out deals with allies, the U.S. and Japan is bad, but a deal with North Korea, a regime committed to the ROK’s destruction, is a good thing.

Here is my favorite part of Mr. Oh’s article how he can’t explain why South Korea is not going after China the same way they are going after China:

I am often asked by foreigners why Korea is easily provoked by Japan while being more tolerant of China. For instance, China has retaliated against Korea for allowing the U.S. to station its anti-missile Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles on its soil.

Beijing stopped sending tourists to Korea and put pressure on Korean firms in China, having some pack up and leave for home. But there has been little public show of indignation. The sentiment is more of a concern than resentment shown on the fly to Japan for a slight provocation. 

I would say it is related to the unhappy memories of Japan’s occupation at the turn of the 20th century. But then, the Chinese supported North Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War that killed or maimed millions of Koreans. And it also has been a key supporter keeping the North afloat since, standing in the way of unification. 

Another possible explanation is that Korea had long served as a midpoint transmitting advanced culture from China to Japan, an experience that induced its people to look down on Japan. Japan used to pay tribute to Korea. Maybe that piece of history is affecting Koreans’ collective consciousness. 

As I have long said on this site, China is responsible for more death and destruction on the Korean peninsula than Imperial Japan ever caused by their colonial occupation of the peninsula. However, China does not get the same treatment Japan gets because they will strongly respond.

Japan on the other hand has been an easy punching bag for ROK politicians for decades because they would not strongly respond. That has clearly changed now as President Moon has found out.

This is the affect that I think the Trump administration’s tariffs on China is trying to cause, the movement of manufacturing out of China. Vietnam could end up being a big winner of this tariff war between the U.S. and China:

Nintendo Co. plans to start making its Switch video game console in Vietnam this year, transferring some of its production from China, a company spokesman said Tuesday.

The official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, said the change has been in the works for some time, to reduce risks that come from having production in one nation. He denied it was a direct response to the growing trade friction between the U.S. and China.

He declined to give details on manufacturers or production sites in Vietnam, citing company policy. He said production was set to start this summer but declined to give a date.

Japan’s major business daily Nikkei reported Tuesday that the move was driven by worries that U.S. tariffs on goods produced in China may affect game device sales.

Japan Times

You can read more at the link.

This is going to be a lot of businesses going under in the next six months if the Japanese trade restrictions are not lifted:

The Korea Federation of Mid-sized and Small Manufacturers said Tuesday that 60 percent of medium and small-sized firms(SME) in South Korea affected by Japan’s export controls will not be able to endure the restrictions after six months.

The federation announced the results of a survey it held on 269 SMEs in the semiconductor sector following Tokyo’s export control announcement last week.

Fifty-nine percent of surveyed firms said they will only be able to withstand the export restrictions for a maximum of six months. 

KBS World Radio

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty clear that the trade restrictions were carefully crafted to put massive pressure on the Moon administration in the short term to abide by past agreements resolving Imperial Japanese era abuses.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is really increasing his criticism of the Moon administration:

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday linked Tokyo’s economic retaliatory measures against Seoul with the implementation of North Korea sanctions – underscoring a lack of “trust” in South Korea. 

Abe appeared to be sidestepping the real reason for his government’s restrictions on industrial exports to Korea – court rulings against Japanese companies found guilty of forcing Koreans to work for them during World War II – and suggesting an overarching problem with trust in Seoul that extends to security concerns.

One suggestion is that high-tech products made with Japanese materials may be making their way to North Korea.

Speaking on a televised debate ahead of upper house elections on Fuji TV, Abe said that South Korea “claims that it is abiding by sanctions on North Korea” and is also following the Wassenaar Arrangement, the first multilateral export control regime for conventional weapons and sensitive dual-use goods and technologies.

Abe went on to suggest that Seoul is not capable of fulfilling its commitment to implement sanctions on the North because it “clearly does not keep its promises and abide by the claims agreement between two countries” and “obviously will not properly abide by trade regulations.” 

On the matter of his government’s new restrictions on exports of key industrial materials to Korea, Abe said that there was an “occurrence of an inappropriate matter,” and added, “you can’t trust what they say.”

Japan on Thursday implemented export restrictions to Korea on three key materials – fluorinated polyimide, hydrogen fluoride and photoresists – needed in the production of semiconductors and smartphones.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

You have to love the irony of President Moon asking for “sincere consultations” with Japan when his administration withdrew from the prior comfort women agreement and have been using the courts to further attack Japan for domestic political purposes:

President Moon Jae-in called on Japan on Monday to withdraw its recent export control against South Korean firms, describing it as an attempt to limit trade for a political purpose.

Breaking his strategic reticence on the sensitive issue, Moon said his administration will first make “calm” efforts to resolve it diplomatically.

In case of “actual damages” to South Korean companies, however, the government will be left with no other choice but to take “necessary” measures, he stressed, presiding over a meeting with senior Cheong Wa Dae officials.

He added he hopes to avoid such a vicious cycle of tit for tat.

“(I) call on the Japanese side to retract the measure and call for sincere consultations between the two countries,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I don’t see the Abe administration bending on this until the Moon administration agrees to uphold the 1965 treaty that normalized relations between the two countries.

This helps to send a message to China about the rising will of the Japanese government to project naval power:

One of Japan’s largest warships, the helicopter carrier Izumo, offers a glimpse of where its military is headed: For the first time, troops from a newly formed amphibious brigade of the Self-Defense Forces participated in an extended naval deployment.

The Izumo left Subic, a former U.S. naval base in the Philippines, at the end of a two-month deployment in the Indo-Pacific region at a time of prolonged tensions involving China’s sweeping territorial claims in and around the South China Sea. The carrier, along with the destroyers Murasame and Akebono, just finished a series of drills with the United States and other countries.

Japan’s ability to project military power beyond its borders is severely constrained by the commitment to pacifism and rejection of use of military force in conflict enshrined in its post-World War II Constitution, though in 2015 it was reinterpreted to allow the use of force in defending itself and its allies.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made amending the Constitution to allow the military greater leeway one of his lifetime goals. President Donald Trump has sought to help that cause, calling repeatedly for Japan to do more to defend itself under its alliance with the U.S.

In May, Japan conducted its first quadrilateral exercise with France, the U.S. and Australia in the Bay of Bengal. France deployed its flagship nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the FS Charles de Gaulle, while the United States sent a missile destroyer, the William P. Lawrence. Other drills have included Canada, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines.

Japan is preparing to reconfigure the Izumo to accommodate U.S. stealth fighters, including F-35Bs, after announcing it would purchase 42 of its own. The aircraft are designed to operate with short takeoffs and vertical landings, such as on carriers.

Japan Times

You can read more at the link, but the Japanese carriers are going to be able to project quite a bit more power once they are equipped with the F-35B’s.

Of the 47 surviving South Korean ‘comfort women’ 36 agreed to accept money from a fund paid for by Japan before it was closed by Seoul for not being part of a sufficient solution to the WWII legacy. https://t.co/KchOm3QDf4

— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) July 6, 2019

I think President Trump is more interested in modifying the treaty than ending it:

 The Japanese government has dismissed a U.S. media report saying that President Donald Trump spoke of ending the two nations’ longstanding postwar defense pact.

Bloomberg News, citing anonymous sources, reported Monday that Trump had privately mused about withdrawing from the “one-sided” security treaty with the United States’ longtime ally.

The president thinks the accord is unfair because it promises U.S. aid if Japan is attacked but doesn’t oblige Japan to come to America’s defense, the Bloomberg report said.

However, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, told reporters at a news conference in Tokyo Tuesday that “there is no such talk as mentioned in the report.” The Japanese government has dismissed a U.S. media report saying that President Donald Trump spoke of ending the two nations’ longstanding postwar defense pact.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It appears that the Abe administration has lost patience with the Moon administration over the forced labor ruling and decided to do what the Chinese did and economically retaliate against South Korea:

 South Korea’s trade minister said Monday the government plans to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over Japan’s decision to tighten the rules for exports of semiconductor and display materials to Seoul, amid a simmering diplomatic row over wartime force labor. 

“South Korea has been making efforts to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with Japan,” Industry Minister Sung Yun-mo told reporters, describing the Japanese measure as an “economic retaliation” against South Korea’s Supreme Court ruling on compensation for wartime forced labor.

Sung added the action contradicts not only WTO rules but also global efforts to seek a free, fair and predictable free-trade environment as proposed at the Group of 20 summit held in Japan last week.

“(The government) will continue to communicate closely with local firms to minimize the impact, and will take this event as an opportunity to beef up the competitiveness of the country’s parts, materials, and equipment (sectors),” Sung said, adding that Seoul will take all necessary measures including diversifying import sources.

Earlier in the day, the Japanese government said it will strengthen regulations on the export to South Korea of high-tech chemicals used in semiconductor and smartphone production starting Thursday, apparently in response to South Korea’s ruling on compensation for wartime forced labor.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but for those that have not been following this issue, the Japanese side does not dispute the forced labor claim, what they dispute is that they already paid compensation with the 1965 treaty. Instead of handing out money for individual compensation, the ROK government used the money to develop the economy instead.

As I have always said about this issue is the ROK government going to support compensation claims against China for their role in the destruction of South Korea during the Korean War that killed tens of thousands of South Koreans?

Speaking of China they have just launched their latest economic retaliation against South Korea for hosting the THAAD battery:

China removed ~120 billboard/bus station ads of #SouthKorean companies #Samsung, #Hyundai & #Kia overnight on 6/29 with no compensation nor notice. It recruited ~400 people using cranes & solder equipment. China’s pressure tactic.https://t.co/1V7PrA1Kft

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) July 1, 2019

Despite all the economic retaliation against South Korea from China over the THAAD dispute, the Moon administration has not lodged complaints to the WTO. This is just the latest example of hypocrisy between how the ROK government responds to the Japanese government compared to China.