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© 2019 AFPS Korean beer imports from Japan plunge 97%
By Jung Yeon-je SEOUL©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
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© 2019 AFP
89 Comments
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Sh1mon M4sada
no problem, keep the beers for the rugby crowd
Yubaru
Well, I will do my patriotic part, for the sake of the economy, and consume more beer! Who will join me!
Chip Star
A true patriot!
KariHaruka
Hope that the Korean's enjoy drinking the world famous no.1 beer, Cass....
kurisupisu
Is there a need to buy imported more expensive, similar tasting beer?
Korean beer and Japanese beer have a very similar taste.
However, imported beer is more expensive.
As the Korean economy is not doing so well then The news that Koreans aren’t buying Japanese beer is to be expected.
To put the news into perspective,
I have never seen nor bought Korean beer in Japan...
obladi
The dispute between Japan and S. Korea should be settled in the international courts, not by boycotting beer.
KariHaruka
Never drunk Cass? That p*ss water makes Budweiser taste like a premium beer.
And you never see Cass or Hite in Japan for the very reason that they taste awful.
Akie
Not smart.
Ganbare Japan!
Does this fool in the photo actually think boycotting Japanese beer will hurt Japan? The rest of the world will easily make up the short fall in sales. There is a huge boom in Japanese beer around the world, because its mouth-watering. Cannot say the same for Korean beer!
Yubaru
That's why they give it away on Asiana flights!
vanityofvanities
Weak dogs bark loud.
Hawkeye
This is a sobering topic. Korean beer is quite good but not on par with Japanese, German or Mexican beers.
commanteer
Too bad for Koreans who like good beer.
One must remember, though, that this doesn't mean 97% of the people who like Japanese beer stopped buying because they hate Japan. The stores have been pressured to stop carrying it. They stop because they don't want trouble. The same with drinkers. They want to buy, but feel the social pressure, and fear they will be criticized if they are seen buying it.
Korean beer is simply not very good, by any accepted standard. Not sure why that is.
BackpackingNepal
Koreans are the heavy drinkers in their group but when one drinks with foreign friend, they can't compete.
So they should just stick with their Soju, Khrrrrr! Sip Sekkya!
thepersoniamnow
Ok latest fit in this long tantrum...
JJ Jetplane
Really @Yubaru? Lol. All this time I thought it was because Asiana was a Korean company.
I am not a beer fan. But Korean beer isn’t famous for its taste. Even among Koreans it is not known to taste good. That’s why it’s so cheap to drink beer in Korea where you can drink all night for $5. Korea makes its name in other forms of alcohol. Not beer.
Jimizo
I thought the same. Gassy and bland. Nothing wrong with liking gassy and bland mind you.
extanker
And in related news, nobody in Japan gave a damn.
Seriously. I just got back from visiting friends in Tokyo and we had a laugh about how a huge number of toilets in Korea are Toto so they have to boycott them too.
BertieWooster
This is a PR problem. Someone is stirring the excrement. Diplomacy is needed. Unfortunately Abe and his oyaji's idea of diplomacy is to stand up and shout.
oldman_13
And, as per usual, absolutely no mention of the 156 cases of export violations by South Korea, and South Korea's refusal to meet with Japanese officials on multiple occasions to resolve the issue which could have averted this mess.
Just mention that this trade spat happened after South Korean Court's decision on compensation of forced laborers.
Journalism at its 'finest'
To this day the anti-Japan crowd has not given one valid reason why Japan was wrong in removing SK from the white list
Strangerland
Really? I’ve thought their response has been fairly restrained.
Meiyouwenti
If they are boycotting Japanese beer, why don’t they also boycott hydrofluoric acid, the chemical that Samsung desperately needs to produce their microchips.
Heckleberry
@Kari - As a fan of IPA style beers, all Asian lagers whether it be Kirin, Cass, Asahi or Chang all have the same bland taste to me and have no place in my fridge other than for summer barbecues with lots of guests.
Do the hustle
You know things are bad when beer is in the dispute.
Snickers
I'm boycotting Korean goods - wife thinks I'm being petty but I don't care.
No more market O brownies for me ...
Wolfpack
Beer ban? There is no logic to such madness!
Park Lee-kim
Honestly I used to think that it was just the South Korean government that was the problem, fueled by their own political agendas and chinese "investment". This boycott is displaying through the extremeness of their knee-jerk reactions how much of the Korean population has been brainwashed. Its so sad to see Korean friends of mine who have never expressed any Japan negativity, some of which who even have Japanese blood flowing through their veins, suddenly do a 180 and start trashing Japan. The worst part is, through Korean media, they are all completely misinformed on the facts of what actually happened!
kohakuebisu
Just a comment on the photo chosen, but the man in the photo has made a banner about Japan dumping radiation, not about beer or wartime responsibilities.
If country A was about to dump a load of radiation in the ocean, I think you'd get protests in neighboring countries B and C pretty much anywhere in the world. This is regardless of any historical spats between countries A, B, and C.
fwiw, I personally think the Korean government is stoking the wartime protests to deflect public anger, but Japan dumping radiation is indefensible. Even if it gets diluted.
Alex80
Let them drink whatever they want...is this even newsworthy at this point?! Haters gonna hate, that's all.
Richard Burgan
Children of Korea, calm down and look at yourselves. You have no friends. Will you announce a boycott of the 2020 Olympics in Japan next?
drlucifer
I would have loved to join you but I have to keep my sugar down.
kwatt
Most S Koreans would not come to Japan next year while they are strongly boycotting everything of Japan. They would stay home and drink nasty beer during Olympic games from TV.
Heckleberry
@kwatt - Korean lagers are bland like all Asian lagers but can it get any worse than the beer flavoured happoshu so popular in Japan? Truly nasty stuff.
As for the Olympics, avoiding the extreme heat, sipping ice cold lagers on the couch with the Olympics on prime time TV? The poor Koreans.
Alexandre T. Ishii
Some S. Koreans say that's political and many say it's social problem with Japan. Well, I don't care beer to be a escalating problem as this photo shows against Japan. I like Ale and IPA beers made in Japan but never to say Japanese beer the best to convince other country people to taste. Beer is free to choose, can be from any country if the price is along with the taste. I gave up Makkori and it's not political or social problem with S. Korea, I prefer Shochu made in J.
intlobserver
Beer? How much can this size of a grain of sand help reduce the colossal mountain of over 25 billion dollar-deficit per year Korea just cannot not help but bear in its trade with Japan? Why not have the guts to boycott the far higher priced Japanese machines or industrial equipment? Oh, they do know if they did that, the Korean economy would collapse before their next pay day.
If they boycott using Japanese cameras and studio equipment, all their TV stations will shut down, and they will just listen to the Olympics on radios!
indier99
@Park Lee-kim
"Knee-jerk" is the word I would use to describe the reactions of a majority of Japanese and expats posting on JT on every single piece of reporting on anything related to South Korea :)
And I don't think Koreans are really misinformed: reading this site and Yahoo informed me more about the general Japanese sentiments on Koreans than all the so-called anti-Japanese history textbooks did.
Ooopsie
How are Japanese imports of Korean beer?
Heckleberry
@Hill - Are you easily influenced by news reports of Koreans holding banners?
It represents a tiny vocal minority, while the rest of the country is going about their day, the one difference being they are choosing alternatives to Japanese goods where possible, over what they perceive as an effort by Japan to impact SK's economy.
AlexBecu
Dear S. Korean people,
You don't have to agree with what the Abe administration did... But boycotting everything Japanese is the wrong approach to handling current issues.
ken1911jp
Japan wants to boycott South Korean products, but it doesn't use much in the first place.
TheRat
This is all so primitive, it is like an Asian Brexit. The Koreans have had an issue about war time slavery. Deal with that issue like Germany has. Tearing up trade just hurts workers and if you posters think the Japanese brewers can make up for this loss, you are crazy! Who is going to buy lackluster beer. Any German or Belgium Pilsner knocks them flat. But go ahead and wage war on workers in the name of patriotism, trump would be proud!!
indier99
I guess one way to do it is to boycott any electronics using Korean-made chips and display panels. You know.. IPhone.. maybe?
natsu823
So will Japanese beer become cheaper will so much beer stuck in Japan? not
Btw, I buy Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo for half the price or less in Hawaii.
12 bottles or cans for $7- 10.
Go figure.
happyhere
Can someone please explain to me what Japan is getting out of this dispute. It has a huge trade surplus with SK, which is now rapidly disappearing.
ClippetyClop
A 97% decrease in annual $90 million a year sales ain't no chump change for any business. Japan's failed diplomacy is costing the country.
Norman Goodman
Mitsubishi bad! Boycott Asahi! What madness!
Strangerland
Nothing at all. Japan never wanted this dispute. The Korean government came to a "final and irreversible" agreement with the Japanese government, negotiated in good faith by both sides, to find an end to the decades of problems. And they succeeded.
Then the next Korean president came in, decided the agreement was neither final nor irreversible, and has spent the past three years whipping up the Korean populace into an anti-Japanese frenzy. But they have not made any new demands, to come to a new "final and irreversible" agreement. Then their courts started putting out judgements for cases against Japanese companies, further proving that the "final and irreversible agreement" was neither final nor irreversible by Korean standards.
So, Japan dropped preferential trading status for Korea as a result.
And here we are.
Japan negotiated a "final and irreversible" agreement in good faith. Korea then spit in their faith and demanded... well actually no one knows what they're demanding, as they for some reason have decided that their demands are a secret, and it's up to Japan to figure out what they are.
Talk about being inept at international relations, and negotiation. You'd think they only just became independent as a country, and not a couple of generations ago.
commanteer
Quite a few countries buy Japanese beer, though it is often brewed in-country under license rather than imported.
That's across the entire industry, not one business. And since breweries make billions, it isn't that much of a hit.
The real threat to Japan breweries is the rise of microbreweries, which have been steadily encroaching on the beers sales of the giants. This Korea dispute is just a bump in the road compared to that.
kawaiiasian
Japan should consider trade with sk is non-existent. Maybe Japan should quit sending the material that sk needs badly. I'm sick of tje negativity. Go away.
Speed
Their loss. Let 'em drink their crappy beers.
Japanese beer makers should hit up other markets more.
Norman Goodman
This is not a problem of diplomacy. Its a problem of Japanese companies, with the support of the Japanese government, refusing to pay their debts. Primarily its about greed. But secondarily, its about refusal admit crimes committed during the war era.
Yubaru
I guess you and about 10 other people have a hard time reading sarcasm!
smithinjapan
Hope they're importing from somewhere else, then, because Korean beer sucks far more than Japanese beer.
Ex_Res
There is no law in South Korea which states that a beer drinker must buy and drink Japanese beer.
What beer Koreans drink is their business and their choice.
bobfor2
there are a lot more important things than beer sales
daninja
When convenience stores started selling Japanese craft beer, even I stopped drinking the bland pilsners from the 'big four'. The far superior offerings from Yo-Ho Brewing, Ginga Kogen, etcetera, might account for that 3% of Japanese exports that they just.. can't... stop... drinking!
Thunderbird2
Who'll miss them?
TARA TAN KITAOKA
Pick a unfair fight and this is what happen. Nothing new. Japan is lucky that export of anything else have not gone this way.
Ah_so
Absolutely not. Japanese beers are good examples of pilsner lager, whereas Korean beer tastes more like hapochu.
And I have always been primarily an ale drinker if I can lay my hands on it (for over 25 years), but can easily tell the difference in quality between these lagers.
WilliB
Good. More beer for me! I make sure to have an extra Yebisu tonight.
leyasu
Wow, they're nice ionizing radiation symbols.
Korea, you're a champion of childishness!
Ganbare Japan!
Actually, wrong. Japanese beer is delicious, and I cant stop drinking. Korean beer, for instance Hite, is undrinkable, I cant even finish 1 can! Even my dog will refuse to drink it!
Jimizo
Not a patch on VB though, cobber.
Heckleberry
@Jimi - Lost all credibility right there.. VB isn't known as Vomit Beer for nothing. The smell of it does recall the uni days, dank old pubs with damp carpets, bouncers on power trips etc but how was I to know what good beer was back then..
ken1911jp
The text on the photo should be changed to “Japan, please sell them”.
Heckleberry
@"Park Lee Kim" - 'Brainwashed' by whom? Their government? That is not the adjective I'd use to describe a nation whose people orchestrated major anti-government protests by their tens of millions for several months, resulting in their supreme court finding their president guilty of corruption and impeached, and jailed.
Interesting choice of username by the way.. 3 most common Korean surnames.. hmmmm.
Heckleberry
@kawai - In other words, 'how dare the Koreans stop buying Japanese beer'?
@Ganbare - SK is the no. 1 export market for Japanese beer, for 61% all Japanese exports. And you're asking if a 97% drop in exports to SK would have any impact? Even if there were some exponential growth in other markets like you claim, it would struggle to make up for the shortfall caused by a massive drop in exports to SK.
From Reuters:
South Korea buys 61% of Japan’s beer exports, spending 7.9 billion yen ($73 million) in 2018 on the shipments, according to Japan’s finance ministry.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-japan-labourers-beer/south-korean-boycott-hits-japanese-beer-imports-idUSKCN1UX099
showchinmono
Should these two countries rather break off diplomatic relations than fussing about trivial things like imported beer? We all know SK is about flipping 1965 basic treaty over.
mrbaberunee
Japanese beer is overpriced and only average compared to European beer, koreans should import from Europe,
gareton
Yes, Japanese beer is a little expensive outside of Japan...but Korean beer? Oh my god, the most awful tasting sh*t ever! Even Japanese non-alcohol beers taste better!!!
Black Sabbath
Lemme guess: the same right wing rubes who cream over Trump's trade war with China think South Korean nationalists beer ban is childish and stupid?
CanadianExpat
Japanese are quick to give an ersatz apology at the slightest offense, such as a bump on the subway or other little thing, but when it really matters they dig their heels in and refuse to sincerely apologize and atone for the wrong they have done.
So much wretched harm was done by imperial Japan to the (helped by prime minister Shinzo Abe's grandfather, no less), though the average Japanese person knows little of this because their school history books whitewash the matter.
Just apologize substantially and compensate your victims properly, Japan, and then people like the South Koreans will stop complaining.
Otherwise the trade backlash against you will continue and, at best, it will be a pyrrhic victory for you. At worst, you may realize that the sun can set again in Japan as China overshadows you (something nobody but the Chinese wants).
Alienating South Korea and it's people amid rising threats from North Korea and China, and as America becomes relatively weak an inward looking, is foolish pride at it's dangerous worst.
1glenn
Both countries make many excellent beers.
sunfunbun
Beer whatevs is just a sympton of the problem, obviously. When world leaders are petty like Abe and Trump, it leads to pissing contests that become bigger problems. If they'd just figure out diplomacy and talk like adults, escalating dumb trade wars don't happen. It isn't hard to see when Trump is playing footsy with Kim, and he and Abe are smiley facing golf strokes, while all three are nationalistic dotards, providing influence on nationalistic dotards in their respective countries, it leads to disputes of nationalistic false pride in many countries, and in this case, between two similar countries in Japan and South Korea.
HJSLLS
CanadianExpat is right.
The estranged relationship between Japan and South Korea has remained problematic over the decades largely because of Japan’s refusal to sincerely apologize for its wartime atrocities. This is about unresolved damage during Japan’s colonial rule. Although the War is in the past, the anger will remain fresh.
The US needs to play a more visible and proactive role in bringing its two allies together. With growing tensions with China and North Korea, the US, Japan and South Korean alliance needs to remain unwavering.
Serrano
I bet the Japanese beer makers are pissed off at the Japanese and Korean government trade officials.
Strangerland
Like the soybean farmers in America
melonbarmonster
Kind of hard to maintain good relationship with neighbors who think rape and pillaging and then denying it is par for course. Why focus on beer and on not on the array of other industries that are taking significant dents from this stupid trade dispute?
JohnC
Korean beer is garbage
So is Japanese beer. LOL both taste like budweiser light if it fell off the back of the car, landed in sewage and a cat peed all over it. Wait, that bud would taste better. Two lamers arguing about whose country beer tastes better. Theyre BOTH garbage LOL, take it from an American who knows his beer. You guys just drink piss
JohnC
As an American, both beers are garbage. Don't know why you girls are yelling at each other. They both taste like piss and no american would drink either.
kurisupisu
I liked my time with OB and fried chicken-a fond memory!
Also, there are some fine craft beer makers in Korea...
Serrano
take it from an American who knows his beer. You guys just drink piss
U.S. English beer
U.K. English piss
Nyuk nyuk!
London_Bhoy
Japanese beer is awesome. I had a great time in Japan a few years ago trying them all lol. Love the can designs too. We only have one mainstream beer in the UK and that's Asahi. Give us some of that Sapporo, Ebisu, Asahi off shoots etc. I'll drink them if SK doesn't want them!