The shadow of "No Japan," the movement to boycott Japanese products that once swept through Korea's consumer market, is fading rapidly. The share of respondents willing to actively participate in the boycott has fallen to one-fifth of its earlier level over about five years, while the perception of a "Yes Japan" mood has instead become more dominant.
According to the "2026 Survey on Perceptions of Japanese Product and Content Consumption" conducted by market research firm Embrain Trend Monitor among 1,000 men and women aged 19 to 59 nationwide, the share of respondents who said they would "continue to actively participate" in the boycott of Japanese products plunged from 41.9% in December 2020 to 8.6% in May this year, the survey showed Wednesday. By contrast, those who said they "no longer have much intention to participate" more than quadrupled over the same period, rising from 10.2% to 42.7%.
Generational differences were also clear. The response "no longer have much intention to participate (will soon stop)" was particularly high among those in their 20s (55.6%) and 30s (47.2%), while it was relatively lower among those in their 40s (35.6%) and 50s (32.4%). Conversely, the response "will continue to actively participate" was higher among those in their 40s (12.4%) and 50s (10.4%) than among those in their 20s (4.4%) and 30s (7.2%). In other words, the will to boycott is cooling more quickly among younger generations.
As for reasons for the declining willingness to participate, "purchasing products is a matter of individual choice and taste" was the most common answer at 33.7% (multiple responses allowed), followed by "I have lost interest and become desensitized" at 28.4%.
The share of respondents who said they feel no aversion or discomfort even when seeing others' posts on social media (SNS) about traveling to Japan or buying Japanese products reached 55.2%.
The response that "the boycott of Japanese products should continue" steadily declined from 42.0% in 2022 to 21.6% in 2024 and 15.1% this year. By contrast, 43.1% of all respondents said the current mood is closer to "Yes Japan" than "No Japan."
Meanwhile, the No Japan movement spread nationwide in 2019 in response to Japan's export restrictions on Korea. At the time, movements to boycott Japanese products and refrain from traveling to Japan emerged, directly affecting Japanese clothing brands including Uniqlo, as well as Japanese beer and Japanese automobile brands.
