Jobs in Japan for S Korean graduates dry up

Japanese companies closing up shop in offering jobs to South Koreans in a tit for tat childish game of payback.

It's likely that a lot of the jobs for S-Korean grads in Japan were for position of relations with the South-Korean market and industry, and for tourism from SK in Japan. Due to boycott, the jobs became unnecessary.

It is really sad to see the the issue created by Moon to cover his own incompetence and scandals and divert people attentions is affecting this kind of people who could play a big role in bridging Japan and S. Korea and improving the relation between the 2 countries.

This story is sad. These kids have shown themselves to be hard workers - leaving their country to go and study in another, learning another language. Discriminating against them because of their nationality serves no positive purpose to anyone on either side. On the contrary, the people who can go between the countries are the most valuable at a time like this.

"It will not only get harder to find a job in Japan, but the current sentiment will also make things more difficult to find a job in Korea with the use of my Japanese major," Song said.

Good luck Song. Keep at it - there’s someone out there that will see the value in you.

Now lets put this to perspective:

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190826000321

"This means that nearly 1 in 4 young Koreans have been out of work."

South Korea has long had testy relations with former colonial ruler Japan, with Tokyo citing a dispute over forced labor during World War Two as a factor that led to tighter export controls implemented in July.

South Korea responded by stripping Japan of favored trading nation status and scrapping an intelligence sharing pact.

With a name like Joori Roh, I wouldn't expect anything less than to mention dispute over compensation of forced labor as a 'factor' in the decision of Japan to remove South Korea from the white list. Indeed, no mention of the 156 cases of export violations by South Korea companies of high tech materials, and of course no mention of the South Korean government thumbing their nose at Japanese officials and repeatedly ignoring their request to resolve the issue long before this 'trade row.'

Why care about the truth, when you can demonize Japan for all it's worth and put the onus of blame on them for acting as rationally as any other nation would in such matters.

Those 156 cases were exposed and penalize by the South Korean authorities. 

Japan has been asking more details of those 156 illegal exports regarding Japan's export management. But SK has not answered them yet to Japan. The lists SK government released have only dates, names of buyers (of companies), names of products/materials, but NO final destinations/end user names of them.

Seriously, now this is mean. Some parents denied their children the possibility to find a job in Japan only because of their ideology. Let the kids free to choose by themselves. These young Koreans had an open and future-oriented mind, but their dream had been ruined by the stubborn older people. This boycott thing should be a free choice at least, not something that you force on your children.

Japan and S. Korea in 1965 signed an aggrement with money paid in the billions today to move on, move forward towards a better future together and co-operation! - It was not signed as a temporary agreement!

S. Korea also went back on the 2015 comfort woman deal as Final and Irreversible! Apology was given by Abe and a fund of $8.3 million dollars was set up for the victims(the amount Koreans asked for). Majority of comfort women supported the deal. What happened? The election of Moon Jae-in

Moon became president with promises of going back on agreements signed with Japan. Even Obama supported the 2015 deal!

The South Korean government is thinking only about election measures and not thinking about its own people.

It's not Japan who started this. It's the Supreme court of sk and a series of outright protests inside and outside of Korea against Japan all these years.

Why does any tech company want to hire a South Korean person at this point? He or she may betray the company to drain the information to sk tech companies or they might demand compensation for not liking Japanese ways then go to international community to "expose" how Japanese company men would treat them in "war time abuse". I mean, sk government and the activists have been demonstrating such accusations everywhere in recent years. Hiring a sk person is like a liability.

There are huge differences between the government and average citizens on both sides. Right now, the governments are having problems but the citizen’s opinions on both sides are not necessarily shaped by the government’s stance.

Not true. Have you seen South Korean activists in big cities in the US? They have been screaming out loud that they want Americans to help them stop the "Japanese aggression" and "the use of comfort women" today. Many Americans believe that such practice is still going on and Koreans are the victims therefore they would never lie or harm others. That's the propaganda working at common people's level. We just had a comfort women awareness musical going on for a week in Los Angeles, combining with the complaints about "Japanese economic oppression". They also work with New York school boards to change the name of Yakeshima to East Sea in favor of Korea. Seriously, this is not just the government. Don't undermine the aggression coming from common Koreans.

Seth MToday  07:19 am JST

Now lets put this to perspective:

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190826000321

"This means that nearly 1 in 4 young Koreans have been out of work."

More time available to participate in demonstrations and spread anti-J propaganda.

talk to the Moon, but he is not listening.

Something I feel strange is that people in South Korea do not think they have their own responsibilites for series of troubles of this time. "Japan is all bad and S. Korea is always just" is their understanding. Burning flags of Japan, demanding apology from the emperor, seizure of assets of Japanese companies, putting statue of comfort woman in front of Japanese embassy etc. etc. I am not surprised Japanese get angry and Korean students have difficulties in finding jobs in Japan.

Find your own future in your own country. Work hard and make it a better place so that the next generation of Koreans will not have to seek employment in other countries. That’s my advice to new college graduates in South Korea. Good luck!

To me, it was shocking to find out that S Korea was in the White List in the 1st place. Japan has been very naive to put a country with anti-Japanese agenda in the list of trusted nations. It would be like US putting Cuba or Iran in their white list. It is a bit thick for Koreans to demand that Japan put them back in the list when the whole country from the government, media to common citizens have been enthusiastically trying to spread anti-Japanese propaganda and their hatred against Japan to other nations.

.

The converse in SK is likely true, too - jobs for J Graduates / J Professionals, Technicians, etc have dried up there too.

It goes with the territory !

.

Japan will be drawing from grads and professionals from other nations they can work with in a viable reciprocal collaborative way , such a Brazil, Viet Nam, Australia . . . wide is the sky !!!

.

So, SK is looking at other countries to which it will encourage its young people to emigrate for the sake of their financial future well-being. That has to be one of the dumbest things a country can do - decimate itself of its young adults who only want viable opportunities for work and happiness. I'm only guessing, but I don't think half of them, if they go, will ever return to SK except as temporary visitors. Go ahead kids - go somewhere else, marry a person of a different nationality, grow a family and be happy.

kawaiiasianToday  09:33 am JST

Not true. Have you seen South Korean activists in big cities in the US? They have been screaming out loud that they want Americans to help them stop the "Japanese aggression" and "the use of comfort women" today.

This isn't just true of today either. I've encountered quite a few Korean uni students studying in the US back in the 80s/90s with a very anti-Japanese bent to them.

Once at one of our foreign exchange student organization parties on campus, a K-student kept bringing up the WWII/colonization issue to some of the J-students.

None of the J-students cared one bit about it. They said it was way before their time and even made it clear to the K-student. Eventually, everyone tried to avoid the "wet blanket" Korean guy. Hell, it was a party for Christs sake.

Fortunately, not all the K-students were like this, but unfortunately, there were quite a few who were.

Blame your country.

Japan's decision they call export curb is NOT a retaliation to SK's top court decision but the reasons Japan sees SK not trustworthy enough to keep it on its white list are related to all the betrayals done by the country.

Some posters and SK politicians do not understand these two are separated issues but untrustworthiness

arose from everything SK has done.

South Korea totally reminds me of my African brethren.

We tend to whine, rant and blame our erstwhile colonialists for every failure that besets our nations: see the apt case of the recently departed Zimbabwe autocrat, Robert Mugabe.

In S Korea, I see a similar parallel. They rant and rave and blame the Japanese for practically every failure in their society.

However, that short period of Japanese colonialism, from 1910 to 1945, a mere 35 years, was the most progressive and modernizing - economically and socially - in the 2,000 years of Korean history.

Please create jobs in Korea for these Korean youths. Or, perhaps, the magnanimous PRC might look kindly at little brother.

"The Japan export curb issue definitely seems to be affecting these events," Park said.

Japanese employers are worried candidates who have accepted job offers might change their minds, according to a Korea International Trade Association (KITA) official speaking on condition of anonymity.

So which is it?

Japanese companies worried that South Korean students may change their minds after accepting a Japanese job offer (with the implication that the South Korean students themselves under pressure from family/friends/neighbors/brainwashed nationalists change their minds), is completely different than Japanese companies closing up shop in offering jobs to South Koreans in a tit for tat childish game of payback.

These people can't seem to make up their minds, can they?

Whenever I'm in Seoul I encounter this cohort of desperate South Korean youth beset by penury eager to seek better employment prospects across the Sea of Japan, or to the US. Others mention to me their willingness to shift base to Canada, Australia or the UK.

If Moon Jae-in and his bitter cabal devoted just 10% of the energy they devote towards appeasing and kowtowing to China and coddling Chairman Kim, to try and improve their domestic economy to help these Hanguk youth, these young Koreans would not be emigrating en masse from their motherland.

Fix your domestic economy, Moon Jae-in.

It's too bad that the young South Koreans have to suffer because of the actions of the adults in power. But that is how it has been through history.

indier99Today  08:02 am JST

@Oldman

*With a name like Joori Roh, I wouldn't expect anything less than to mention dispute over compensation of forced labor as a 'factor' in the decision of Japan to remove South Korea from the white list. Indeed, no mention of the 156 cases of export violations by South Korea companies of high tech materials, and of course no mention of the South Korean government thumbing their nose at Japanese officials and repeatedly ignoring their request to resolve the issue long before this 'trade row.'*

Those 156 cases were exposed and penalize by the South Korean authorities. The items in question were all reclaimed and discarded. Get your facts straight old man :)

Thank you in advance for providing source for that

S Koreans seem always welcome to Japan to hunt better jobs here though many people are boycotting Japanese things in S Korea.

@Indier99

Thanks for your links. Unfortunately first two links, one shows system error and the second one unable to search. The last one was good to read but you know you fail in your claim as it said

“적발 사례에는 무허가 수출이 실제 이뤄진 것, 미수에 그친 것이 모두 포함돼 있는데 어떤 경우에도 행선지가 ‘북한’으로 된 것은 없다” meaning that 156 cases uncovered include both the unauthorized exports done and missed attempts.

Thank you in advance if you have any other source which support your claim.

Get job and add value in your own country. The world has been doing it forever and seems to work pretty well.

Politics and inept politicians are ruining relations worldwide, either citing historical misdemeanours or bloating their own political ego's. Most are rightwing old men with no clue about reality, they only dream of war and conflicts. The business communities and business individuals on the other hand are progressives and are being held back by these inept fools.

How come SK students or young guys have to follow this extreme anti-Japan government? It sounds like people there has strong tendency to convert political matters to social matters. It seems like a word in Japan 　自粛 jishuku, to voluntarily refrain to the society against the real willing. Asians have more that feeling some similarity that westerners not easy to understand.

Not surprising with the current war of words, and economic battles ongoing.

Yep and it's only going to get worse until the right wing regime changes course. The bright side is the students can look for work absolutely elsewhere!!

Some weeks ago in all social pages there were South Koreans with nationalistic sentiment saying that Japan would be the country that would loose more with this thing, but after reading these two threads(yesterday about Nissan pulling out fro Korea and this one) looks like Korea has more to loose on this.

Japan is no different from other imperialist powers that sought to bolster their power and security by taking advantage of the weakness of others. Apologists and those seeking to absolve Japan will always shy away from the distinction that benefits accrued incidentally by Korea were predicated on the enrichment of Japan that was the primary reason for Japan being there in the first place. These true believers in the myth of Japan as selfless promoter of Korean development, probably also zealous adherents of the WW2 Japan as victim narrative, will never voluntarily accept that their narrative is fatally flawed by an inherent incompatibility between what actually happened and needs to be done and their aim of exonerating Japan and assuaging it’s guilt through recourse to selective truth that insults the dignity of the nation by preventing it from taking the necessary steps to make amends for the festering wounds stemming from the colonial enterprise.

Haven't seen even single poster here in the past, supposedly very pro-Japan, nor single scholar or historian who claims Japan annexed Korea purely as a selfless promoter only for Korea and the people. but the benefits

accrued by Korea was not incidental but intended which is too obvious for even junior-high school kids to ignore when they look at the amount of investment intentionally poured into the peninsula compared to then-national budget

Innocent victims of the utterly inept and misguided Moon administration and their supporters who are in denial that the anti-Japan policy will not have negative consequences for their country.

I am not Korean but this very poor Japanese behaviour, shown to the international community.

has been*

@kawaiiasian

They also work with New York school boards to change the name of Yakeshima to East Sea in favor of Korea.

You mean the pending case that has been going on for almost 15 years? The one originally brought to the board of education by the Chinese community in Flushing NY?

MkoreaMWafrika - the GDP per capita of Japan and Korea are about the same. Penury? That’s a stretch.

This message board is a head scratcher. There must be a lot of Japanese in America who hate Koreans. There are no widespread anti-Japanese demonstrations in America. It’s America... any person can organize a rally for anything.

Also, look at the Koreatimes US or other similar English language Korean websites. There are no trolls hating on Japanese.

Finally, to those complaining about Moon reversing course on the comfort woman deal, look at what’s happened in America once Trump took over. He tore up the Iran agreement and backed out the Trans Pacific and global climate negotiations. That happens in a two party democracy. Japan is single party rule and that creates stability and consistency but not diversity of thought. There are trade offs.

South Korea totally reminds me of my African brethren.

We tend to whine, rant and blame our erstwhile colonialists for every failure that besets our nations: see the apt case of the recently departed Zimbabwe autocrat, Robert Mugabe.

Totally untrue! I'm African too. We did that for a while, but not anymore. We are intelligent enough to identify and know the roots of our problems. The physical colonists left but what he left behind is the most insidious form of it, in the leadership while in others, it comes out as in self- flagellation and self- hate.

If Korea were to do that to Japan nowadays, would Japan just forgive and forget an unapologetic Korea within a few generations?

There's no IF in history. So it would be meaningless to suppose Japan would not ask for annexation in the 1st place like Korea actually did, nor sign the unwanted treaty even if threatened at gunpoint, nor use excuse of then-political regime to deny the promise later on, nor take as much as possible and then scrap the promise later on.

The first thing which needs to be understood in regard to the failure of Korea-Japan rapprochement is that it was destined to happen. It is imperative that people understand that these negotiations were not wrapped up smoothly and expeditiously, but were mired in dissension from the beginning, that they occurred in a fitful and desultory fashion, and were punctuated by a civil war which was itself a direct consequence of Japan’s failed colonial project. Whilst there were two sides, one held all the cards and was determined, myopically, to do everything in its power to pay out pennies on the pound. Examine the documents leading up to the 1965 agreement; Japanese perfidy and penny pinching pettiness literally oozes from them. The only conclusion a reasonable person could take from them is that bad faith arguments lead to bad agreements. The 1965 agreement was doomed from the moment it was signed, and only the Japanese think otherwise.

In order to minimise any possible future reparations liabilities, the Japanese made strong representations against Korea’s inclusion as a participant in the SF negotiations. Japan’s ‘victory' in having Korea excluded was instrumental in facillitating the bargain basement travesty of a treaty finalised in 1965 with Japan's collaborator friend president at the time.

This way, Koreans typically quibble over their inconvenient truths as if they had no other options, if they were forced by others, if they couldn't help it. No surprising as the existence of 1965 treaty would be problematic for unified Korea to re-do milking Japan all over again.

Looking at the future beyond two outdated governments, i hope Korean and Japanese youth take a good hard look into their respective governments and promise not to repeat this - in either country. It’s every bit as criminal as the history they’re rebelling against 100 years ago. I long have lost belief in governments, any around the world. Time for a one world governing body. Local differences like this need to be dealt with swiftly and intelligently without political or ideological bias. Both nations are filled with deep ideological roots, paralyzing normalization. Moon isn’t alone to blame, even if he is the main instigator.

FYI here's a SK national poll conducted by REALMETER(http://www.realmeter.net/) on the boycott of Japanese products from last month (Aug 7).

Age slot / Participating in the Boycott (%)

20s / 57.6

30s / 64.4

40s / 77.1

50s / 63.5

over 60 / 48.2

From here in Los Angeles, 8,800 kms away, the whole spat seems pretty silly.

The poor behavior is by the South Korean government starting a near-war with Japan and reducing the demand for students of Japanese language and culture. The International Community are fully aware of South Korea's hostile behavior and there is no sympthathy.

indier99Today  08:02 am JST

@Oldman

With a name like Joori Roh, I wouldn't expect anything less than to mention dispute over compensation of forced labor as a 'factor' in the decision of Japan to remove South Korea from the white list. Indeed, no mention of the **156 **cases of export violations by South Korea companies of high tech materials, and of course no mention of the South Korean government thumbing their nose at Japanese officials and repeatedly ignoring their request to resolve the issue long before this 'trade row.'

Those 156 cases were exposed and penalize by the South Korean authorities. The items in question were all reclaimed and discarded. Get your facts straight old man :)

Thank you in advance for providing source for that

A couple of sources for you ;)

http://www.motie.go.kr/motie/ne/presse/press2/bbs/bbsView.do?bbs_seq_n=161887&bbs_cd_n=81&currentPage=1&search_key_n=&cate_n=&dept_v=&search_val_v=

and

https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20190712005003

The first thing which needs to be understood in regard to the failure of Korea-Japan rapprochement is that it was destined to happen. It is imperative that people understand that these negotiations were not wrapped up smoothly and expeditiously, but were mired in dissension from the beginning, that they occurred in a fitful and desultory fashion, and were punctuated by a civil war which was itself a direct consequence of Japan’s failed colonial project. Whilst there were two sides, one held all the cards and was determined, myopically, to do everything in its power to pay out pennies on the pound. Examine the documents leading up to the 1965 agreement; Japanese perfidy and penny pinching pettiness literally oozes from them. The only conclusion a reasonable person could take from them is that bad faith arguments lead to bad agreements. The 1965 agreement was doomed from the moment it was signed, and only the Japanese think otherwise.

In order to minimise any possible future reparations liabilities, the Japanese made strong representations against Korea’s inclusion as a participant in the SF negotiations. Japan’s ‘victory' in having Korea excluded was instrumental in facillitating the bargain basement travesty of a treaty finalised in 1965 with Japan's collaborator friend president at the time.

What a non-story. A bigger story by multiple magnitudes would have been if the SK economy took a hit from Japanese trade curbs having its intended effect.

SK economy is actually doing well if you look at GDP data, despite the high youth unemployment, which never recovered from the 1997 Asian economic crisis.

That's why I laugh every time someone claims Moon is using Japan as a distraction for a poorly performing SK economy. Any country would kill to have an almost doubling of its GDP in the past 10 years.

Take a look at some basic facts:

https://tradingeconomics.com/south-korea/gdp

@Alexandre

How come SK students or young guys have to follow this extreme anti-Japan government? It sounds like people there has strong tendency to convert political matters to social matters. It seems like a word in Japan 自粛 jishuku, to voluntarily refrain to the society against the real willing. Asians have more that feeling some similarity that westerners not easy to understand.

Oh. Really?

Americans have elected Trump as their president and still follows his extreme anti-Chinese government. The British have an extreme anti-EU government. And of course Japan has its extreme anti-South Korea administration. To each its own, I guess. :)

The 1965 agreement was doomed from the moment it was signed, and only the Japanese think otherwise.

The fact that Japan has failed miserably to come to terms with its actions prior and during WWII, evident by clinging to its victim narrative and unwillingness to teach its students Japan's history in full, support your comment above.

Japan still honours its war criminals, and the factors that led Japan into war the last time were never dismantled properly (example; nationalist education system and government). Hence Japan is ambling its way toward all out war with its neighbors again.

This comes as no surprise if you truly understand what's below the surface in Japanese society at large, and can compare that baseline to a truly democratic society.

Japan is quick to blame Korean politicians for this whole problem, while conveniently ignoring the abysmal historic ongoings in Korea, and things that were done to Korean nationals.

If Korea were to do that to Japan nowadays, would Japan just forgive and forget an unapologetic Korea within a few generations?

Go ahead and downvote as your cognitive dissonance takes control...

There are huge differences between the government and average citizens on both sides. Right now, the governments are having problems but the citizen’s opinions on both sides are not necessarily shaped by the government’s stance.

So companies saying they are worried that they might change their minds is useless.

MkoreaMwafrika: “However, that short period of Japanese colonialism, from 1910 to 1945, a mere 35 years, was the most progressive and modernizing - economically and socially - in the 2,000 years of Korean history.”

Japan is no different from other imperialist powers that sought to bolster their power and security by taking advantage of the weakness of others. Apologists and those seeking to absolve Japan will always shy away from the distinction that benefits accrued incidentally by Korea were predicated on the enrichment of Japan that was the primary reason for Japan being there in the first place. These true believers in the myth of Japan as selfless promoter of Korean development, probably also zealous adherents of the WW2 Japan as victim narrative, will never voluntarily accept that their narrative is fatally flawed by an inherent incompatibility between what actually happened and needs to be done and their aim of exonerating Japan and assuaging it’s guilt through recourse to selective truth that insults the dignity of the nation by preventing it from taking the necessary steps to make amends for the festering wounds stemming from the colonial enterprise.

@Oldman

With a name like Joori Roh, I wouldn't expect anything less than to mention dispute over compensation of forced labor as a 'factor' in the decision of Japan to remove South Korea from the white list. Indeed, no mention of the 156 cases of export violations by South Korea companies of high tech materials, and of course no mention of the South Korean government thumbing their nose at Japanese officials and repeatedly ignoring their request to resolve the issue long before this 'trade row.'

Those 156 cases were exposed and penalize by the South Korean authorities. The items in question were all reclaimed and discarded. Get your facts straight old man :)