Japanese Shoppers Flock to South Korea

Dragging empty suitcases and clutching fistfuls of yen, hordes of Japanese shoppers are arriving in South Korea everyday now. Theyre jumping on the chance to take advantage of a strong yen and a weak won which is making everything a bargain.
The Japanese currency is now up over 90 percent against the won compared to the end of 2007, with 100 yen equal to about 1,500 won. The yen has also soared to 13-year highs against the U.S. dollar.

And Japanese shoppers are shrugging off the ongoing economic crisis to stock up on everything from designer brands to everyday items.

Seoul's Myeong-dong, the central shopping district of the capital is teeming with Japanese on shopping sprees. Some stores even have ads in Japanese and Japanese-speaking employees to help customers.

[Erika Ikeba, Japanese Shopper]:
"It's cheap to travel here and the yen is strong, so I plan to buy a lot of cosmetics.

Wary local shoppers have discouraged sales at major department stores and luxury goods outlets. But now these high-end retailers are offering discounts of up to 70 percent to entice Japanese shoppers who arrive by the bus-load.

[Aoki Nakamura, Japanese Shopper]:
"The yen is so strong now and the won is cheap, so I think this means there are a lot of Japanese going to Korea. There are so many Japanese here, it doesn't feel like we're in Korea.

The Yeoju Premium Outlet, the biggest luxury goods outlet in the country said the number of Japanese shoppers has leapt by 85 percent from October of last year.

Businesses big and small hope that Japan's newly-expanded purchasing power will continue to prop up South Korea's struggling tourism and retail business in the months to come.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ntd
• japan
• south korea
• shopping
• currency
• economy

[asian897]

I'm Korean and I dissaprove of your obvious negativity to them. You said that Koreans are nasty and etc. Don't you think that's a large generalization to make about an ethnicity that you really don't know much about? It seems that you have no respect for others out there because what you said is racist. So, from your obvious negativity towards Koreans, I can see why you went there and hated every second of it. You saw what you believed because that was the only thing you chose to see.

[ConceptVBS]

you lived inside a US military base for 11 months you retard. you have not lived in korea. So dont go out saying that you know your shit because you dont. I've lived in korea for 4 years and "resided" inside camp youngsan for 2 years. So I know my shit.

Good thing you were out of there in 11 months because people like you make us Americans look bad.

[purequiif]

japanse is too rich to spend money in korea? uh, really? lol. kan ba re!! yeah~~

[redwhitedude]

@kingmoria Just don't feed the trolls online.

[kingmoria]

@redwhitedude Well, as I said, I'm not a hater, but those are the reasons.

[redwhitedude]

@kingmoria That will provoke a lot of Koreans. Especially the first 2 reasons.

[redwhitedude]

@kingmoria I'm not a Korean nationalist if that's what you label those people. I'm juts acknowledging that this nationalism that Koreans are brought up especially in the media in Korea can be very annoying. I'm not somebody who is going to beat somebody's head with it.

[kingmoria]

@aRaikage Just stating some points:

• The history of the japanese occupation.

• The japanese saying that they helped korean modernization.

• The japanese saying that koreans copy everything they do.

• The japs saying that they own Dokdo, AKA "Takeshima"

• The japanese hate towards koreans, etc.

I'm not a hater though, but if you look at these reasons, you can tell why some koreans evolve hate towards the japs. But it's all about the history, really.

[kingmoria]

@redwhitedude Well, I've met quite a lot of koreans myself, and the avarage korean doesn't really care if korean products are better than japanese or not. They're too busy living their own life.

Those who do express themselves like that are probably people who are too frustrated with the japanese's actions, hence they've done pretty nasty and annoying things.

[GamleErik100]

@chrisk1469

You must be a bit of a thickie, because the Japanese by buying your goods aren't exploiting, but helping your country. But I guess there is no point in trying to tell you anything, because you just hate them for being Japanese in the first place.

[redwhitedude]

@AstralAbraxas You are not the only one annoyed at that. There are plenty of people annoyed at this obsession of Koreans.

[AstralAbraxas]

@redwhitedude oh i completely understand where they are coming from. i still find it annoying though.