By placing Korea on Japan's list of restricted countries for exports, he made several mistakes.
1. He stated that it was in retaliation against Korea's Supreme Court ruling in favor of the enslaved Korean workers enslaved by a certain Japanese multinational. Which is against WTO rules. He and the Japanese government later changed the reason to national security.
2. He targeted industries where Japan is a leader, so it would Korea would not have an alternative source. Korea is now encouraging R&D, investment, and M&As for those industries. So, Korea will become a competitor in those industries within 1-5 years, depending on the industry.
3. Japan has always enjoyed a huge annual trade surplus since Korea became independent. Koreans are now boycotting travel to Japan and Japanese goods. Some companies have seen a 70% drop in revenues and a popular tourist area in Japan is empty. We have a trade deficit in tourism also. About a 4:1 ratio. Korea's trade deficit with Japan will be reduced significantly. This should cause a decrease in Japan's already very low annual GDP growth rate of less than 1%.
Did you know Japan spends over $500 million a year on promoting their version of history?
Japan's public diplomacy budget
If a person talks bad about people often, then that person probably talks bad about you too. If Japan twists history with Korea to cover up negative Japanese involvement, then think about what they say about Pearl Harbor. Ask the Chinese about the Japanese version of the Nanjing Massacre.
Japan's Abe says Japan never attacked and invaded Korea without warning which is false. It seems they attack without warning as a habit. The talk about mistaking time zones when they sent the letter declaring war on the US could be a lie. It could be just an excuse. They knew, but they just pretended to be mixed up about the time zones.
