Uniqlo ad sparks protest, parody as S.Korea-Japan dispute flares (updated)

Lotte

22/10/2019 07:13

(Adds SME minister comments, changes name spelling in
paragraphs 9, 10)
    By Sangmi Cha
    SEOUL, Oct 22 (Reuters) - A bitter dispute between South
Korea and former colonial power Japan has flared up, with
Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo facing a consumer backlash after
a new ad by the company was criticised as mocking victims of
wartime forced labour and brothel workers.
    A YouTube video created by a South Korean student parodying
the ad has gone viral and protesters have targeted Uniqlo
stores, demanding an apology from the company.
    Relations between the two countries have slumped to their
lowest in decades after a ruling by South Korea's top court last
year ordering Japanese firms to compensate wartime forced
labourers.
    In July, Japan tightened controls on exports of three key
high-tech materials to South Korea, prompting a wide-ranging
boycott of Japanese products ranging from beer to pens.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N255181
    Gaining more than 101,000 views in two days, the 19-second
parody video posted on Saturday depicts a likeness of the
Uniqlo's TV commercial that the company began airing this month
in South Korea and other markets.
    In the commercial, Iris Apfel, 97-year-old American style
icon with more than 1.4 million Instagram followers, is in an
animated conversation with 12-year-old fashion designer Kheris
Rogers.
    When Rogers asks how she used to dress as a teenager, Apfel
says: "I can't remember that far back!"
    Instead of a literal translation of that line, the
commercial which aired in South Korea carried subtitles saying:
"Gosh! How can I remember something that goes back 80 years?"   
    In the parody video, a South Korean history major college
student Youn Dong-hyeun stands with Yang Geum-deok, a
90-year-old woman who had been a forced labourer for Japan's
Mitsubishi during World War Two.
    Youn asks how hard it was for Yang when she was young. "It
is impossible to ever forget that awfully painful memory," she
replies. Youn has now posted the video with subtitles in English
and Japanese.
    South Korea and Japan share a bitter history dating to the
Japanese colonisation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945,
including the use of comfort women, a euphemism for girls and
women, many of them Korean, forced to work in its wartime
brothels.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2492I6
    Uniqlo, owned by Japan's Fast Retailing Co Ltd’s  9983.T ,
pulled the ad in South Korea on Saturday.
    "There was no intention to touch on the issue of comfort
women or South Korea-Japan dispute," a Uniqlo official in Seoul
told Reuters, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity
of the situation.
    The translation, which was done in South Korea, was meant to
help convey the message of the original commercial, the official
said. She declined to identify who had done the translation.
    The company has already seen its South Korean sales hit and
a sharp drop in customers at its stores as part of the
wide-ranging boycott.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N26V1PS
    As the outcry against the commercial grew, student
protesters took to the street demanding an official apology from
Uniqlo. 
    Bang Seulkichan, 22, was among those picketing a Uniqlo
store in Seoul, holding a sign reading: “Colonial rule 80 years
ago – we remember!” 
    South Korea's Supreme Court last year ruled in separate
decisions that Japan’s Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp.
 5401.T  and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries  7011.T  must
compensate South Korean victims of forced labour.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N24H11J
    Park Young-sun, South Korea's minister of small and medium
enterprises, told a parliament committee on Monday the ad
controversy was "very upsetting". 

 (Reporting by Sangmi Cha; additional reporting by Ju-min Park
Editing by Jack Kim and Lincoln Feast.)
 ((Sangmi.Cha@thomsonreuters.com; +82 2 3704 5646; Reuters
Messaging: sangmi.cha.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))