Japanese Beer Exports Plummet in January... 99% Decrease in Exports to Korea

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Japan's beer exports to Korea in January decreased by 99% compared to the same period last year. The deterioration in Korea-Japan relations, which began with the Japanese government's export restrictions in July last year, has continued for half a year.

According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on the 27th, the Japanese Ministry of Finance announced through the 'January Trade Statistics by Item' that the volume of beer exports to Korea was 47,600 liters. This represents a 99.0% decrease compared to the same month last year, which is even larger than the 97.9% decline in December last year. In terms of value, it decreased by 98.5% to 5.49 million yen.

Japanese beer was a representative product of the boycott movement against Japanese products in Korea. For Japanese beer companies, which consider Korea their largest overseas market, the Korea-Japan conflict that began in July last year dealt a direct blow to their sales. Kyodo News analyzed that the boycott movement by Korean consumers, in response to the Japanese government's strengthened export restrictions on semiconductor materials, continues to have an impact.

The export volume of hydrogen fluoride, a semiconductor cleaning agent designated as an export-restricted item by the Japanese government, to Korea in January this year was 398 tons, down 88% compared to the same month last year. In terms of value, it was 83.03 million yen, a decrease of 86.8% compared to the same month last year.

Meanwhile, according to the overall trade statistics for January released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance on the 19th, Japan's exports to Korea in January were 371.5 billion yen, down 12.1% compared to the same period last year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.