A Result of Japan Boycott
South Koreans’ offline credit card payment in Japan and credit card payment in Japanese online shopping malls totaled 355.47 billion won in the second half of last year. The amount fell 30.4 percent from the same period of the previous year in the wake of their boycott of Japanese products that started in the summer of 2019 after Japan’s export curbs targeting South Korea.
The payment for the last five months of 2019 is 274.15 billion won, down 36.9 percent from a year earlier. Specifically, the monthly credit card payment, which showed a year-on-year increase of 6.4 percent in July last year, dropped 32.6 percent in August, 34.5 percent in September, and 40.8 percent in October. The export curbs were implemented and the boycott started along with a boycott of travel to Japan in July. In October, the conflict between the two countries reached a peak with regard to the GSOMIA issue.
The payment dropped 37.6 percent and 38 percent in November and December, respectively. Although the Japanese government partially relaxed the restrictions last month, the payment dropped 43.2 percent year on year in the last week of last month.