Japan's export curbs in response to the top South Korean court's ruling on Japanese wartime forced labor has sparked a massive boycott of Japanese products in South Korea.
As we have reported this week, many South Koreans have canceled their travel plans to Japan, but that's having the knock-on effect of harming South Korea's aviation industry.
Lee Min-sun reports. The boycott of Japanese products in South Korea has accelerated ever since the trade spat between the two countries blew up earlier this month.
More and more South Koreans are cancelling pre-booked trips to Japan and are encouraging others to do the same online.
A local branch of Korea's National Agricultural Cooperative Federation even ran a special campaign, giving away 10-kilograms of rice to those who called off their trip to Japan.
With the swelling number of cancellations, South Korea's low-cost carriers are either canceling or slashing the number of routes or the regularity of their flights to Japanese cities.
Starting September, Air Busan, a subsidiary of Asiana Airlines, will discontinue its daily route from Korea's southern city of Daegu to Tokyo's Narita Airport and cut in half its flights between Daegu and Osaka
Eastar Jet will also scrap routes to two Japanese cities from Busan in September. Jin Air and T'way Air have made similar decisions.
Many existing air routes to Japanese cities run by the low-cost carriers weren't that popular in the first place and weren't bringing in substantial profits.
With the boycott, airlines are adjusting their routes and are seeking to diversify their international destinations.
"Demand for Japanese routes has been decreasing since the turn of the year. The trade dispute just accelerated the reorganization of routes to Japan."
Japan's major tourist hubs are also feeling the heat.
Tsushima Island, located about halfway between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, used to be a popular tourist destination for South Koreans.
Some 600-thousand Koreans visited the island last year by ferry, but stores that were once packed with tourists now sit empty and the streets deserted.
The impact is already being felt less than a month into the boycott and if it continues to expand and intensify, there's no guessing the effect it will have on both countries' economies.
Lee Min-sun, Arirang News.
