Uses Sea of Japan in Some Services in Korea
Some Google services in South Korea, including weather, are using the phrase of Sea of Japan (East Sea) to cause controversy.
In principle, Google uses South Korean place names in South Korea and Japanese place names in Japan when it comes to controversial place names. For example, East Sea is shown to Google Map users in South Korea and Sea of Japan is shown to those in Japan. The two are shown at the same time to those in third countries.
The phrase, however, is against the very principle, and yet Google is yet to make an official announcement on the matter. In fact, the company has caused the same kind of controversy on multiple different occasions. In August this year, Dokdo search on Google Map led to zero results. Last month, People Power Party lawmaker Jo Myung-hee criticized Google Korea for Sea of Japan on Google Earth and Google Korea senior managing director Im Jae-hyun apologized.
In the meantime, civic organizations and the government of South Korea are making continuous efforts to replace Sea of Japan with East Sea on maps worldwide. This has to do with the International Hydrographic Organization’s recent decision to use a unique ID number instead of Japan Sea. On maps worldwide, the simultaneous use of East Sea and Sea of Japan or Japan Sea stood at 2.8 percent in the early 2000s. However, the ratio recently reached 41 percent based on such efforts.