(Bloomberg) -- Exports of Japanese beer to South Korea, its biggest overseas market last year, fell to virtually zero in October as Korean consumers shunned products from their Asian neighbor amid a dispute over shared history that has sent relations plunging.
Last month’s figure follows a 99% year-on-year plunge in beer exports in September, and a 92% decline in August, data from Japan’s finance ministry showed on Thursday.
Last year, South Korea was the biggest export destination for Japanese beer makers, such as Asahi Group Holdings Ltd., Kirin Holdings Co. and Sapporo Holdings Ltd.
Boycotts of Japanese brands by South Korean consumers have hit other companies, including Fast Retailing Co.’s Uniqlo and carmakers, after Tokyo introduced controls on exports to South Korea on certain high-tech products in July, a move Seoul saw as unwarranted and politically motivated.
The two countries reached a last-minute deal last week to rescue an expiring military intelligence-sharing pact but it remains unclear whether the two can end a fight that has spilled over to their trade, tourism and security arrangements.
Relations between the two have been in a tailspin since the South Korean Supreme Court ruled last year that a Japanese company must compensate conscripted Korean workers from Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule over the peninsula. Japan says all such claims were settled under a 1965 treaty, while the South Korean courts said that agreement didn’t cover emotional pain and suffering.
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