韓國商店杯葛日本製品

Recently the Mainichi News on-line reported the following:

韓国:日本製品不買運動の開始を宣言　自営業者らの団体

毎日新聞　2013年03月01日　19時25分（最終更新　03月01日　19時56分）

　韓国の自営業者らの団体が１日、竹島の日（２月２２日）式典に日本政府が島尻安伊子内閣府政務官を派遣したことに抗議して、日本製品不買運動の開始を宣言する集会をソウルで開いた。今後、会員の商店などで「日本製品を売るのも買うのもやめよう」という不買運動を展開すると宣言しているが、掛け声倒れに終わるという見方が強い。

　集会には約１００人が参加し、「日本は過去を謝罪しろ」などと叫んだ。韓国では近年、竹島（韓国名・独島＝ドクト）の領有権問題も日本の植民地支配に結びつけて語られるようになっている。

　主催者側は、不買運動には１００以上の団体が参加し、会員数は計７００万人だと説明した。ただし、複数の団体への重複加入もあるといい、実際の人数はもっと少なくなる。

　韓国では過去にも同様の不買運動が呼びかけられたことがあるものの、実際の販売不振につながったことはないと見られている。今回の不買運動についても、ソウル市内の商工会議所関係者は「参加する商店は多くないだろう」という見方を示した。

　ソウル中心部の繁華街・明洞（ミョンドン）にあるユニクロ店舗で買い物をしていた男性会社員、康智錫さん（３０）は「不買運動をする人がいてもいいと思う。私は、品質が良いのでユニクロ製品をよく買っている」と話していた。

(試譯文)

On the 1st the South Korean Self-employed Workers' Organization held in Seoul a meeting which declared the start of a boycott of the Japanese-products in protest against the Japanese government’s dispatching of Shimajiri Aiko, a Cabinet Office parliamentary official, to the Takeshima Day (February 22) ceremony. It declared the start of a boycott that member's store etc. from now on “would stop buying and selling Japanese products”; yet there was a strong view that it would fizzle out.

About 100 people participated in the meeting and shouted that "Japan needs to apologize for the past" etc. In Korea in recent years the discussion on the sovereignty problem of Takeshima (South Korea named it as Dokdo = Duc Tho) was connected to colonial rule of Japan.

    It was explained by the sponsoring side that 100 or more organizations would participate in the boycott, and their membership was 7 million in total. However, it was said that due to duplicated membership subscription of organizations, the actual number was much less.

In South Korea, although in the past it had also appealed for similar boycotts, it was expected that it was out of touch with the real sluggish sales now they had. Also about this boycott, the staff of the chamber-of-commerce in Seoul held the view that "probably not many stores would participate".

    Mr. Kang Jixi (30), a male company employee who was shopping at the UNIQLO store located in Myeong-dong at the heart of downtown Seoul said "I think that people can have a boycott. I often buy UNIQLO products because of their good quality".

It is understandable that to the businessmen, often the financial need to ensure the company’s survival has the top priority.