SEOUL, July 19 (AFP): Beer-loving South Koreans angered by a trade row with Tokyo are boycotting Japanese brews in a surge of patriotism that has even seen popular beauty bloggers targeted.
Japan this month unveiled tough restrictions on exports crucial to tech titans like Samsung, fuelling fears about the impact on the global tech sector, while South Korea's central bank warned it could have "no small impact" on the economy.
Officials from both countries have held hours of terse talks to settle the worsening crisis but there has so far been no sign of a detente.
But beer drinkers in the South are making their fury known, shunning four big Japanese brands in favour of other brews, according to E-Mart, the country's largest hypermarket chain.
Sales of Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory beer fell nearly 25 per cent in the first two weeks of July compared with the second half of June, it said.
"This is a sudden drop we haven't seen for a long time," an E-Mart official told AFP, adding that sales of Korean beer brands were up around seven per cent in the same period.
The trade spat is the latest escalation in a bitter decades-long feud over Japan's use of forced labour during World War II.
It has sparked ire in South Korea, where almost seven in 10 people still report negative feelings towards the country's former colonial ruler.
Meanwhile around 3,700 members of a South Korean grocery store owner association have stopped orders of some or all Japanese products.
"Japan -- a country that does not regret its past. We do not sell Japanese products here," reads a sign in front of one supermarket in Seoul.
The shop's owner, Kim Jeung-pil, told AFP he had removed beer and cigarettes produced in Japan from sale this week -- the first time he has taken direct action in this way.
"Asahi beer has always been very popular among my customers," he said. "But I'm willing to make this sacrifice for my country."
Tokyo says its trade restrictions -- targeting key chemicals used in making gadgets -- were made necessary by a "loss of trust" in relations with Seoul, while also accusing South Korea of improperly handling exports of sensitive materials from Japan.
But Seoul says Tokyo was retaliating for a series of rulings from South Korean courts ordering Japanese firms that used forced labour decades ago to compensate the victims.
Among the boycott calls is an image shared on Instagram that says "I won't go to Japan, I will not buy Japanese products", featuring the word "NO" with the Japanese flag's red disc as the "O".
One of the biggest online forums for South Korean visitors to Japan, where more than a million users share travel tips, also announced an indefinite closure in support of the movement.
South Korean stationery chain Kyobo Hottracks has started indicating which pens are domestically produced by labelling them with markers featuring the national flag or flower.
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