Japan imposes new trade restrictions on Apple's Korean suppliers
Beginning July 4 Japan is imposing new restrictions affecting South Korean tech companies, including key Apple suppliers Samsung and LG, in retaliation for a Korean court ruling finding Nippon Steel must pay for forced Korean labor during World War II.
The Japanese government is halting preferential treatment for the export of fluorinated polyimide -- used in smartphone displays -- and high-purity hydrogen fluoride, used for etching silicon, said Japan's Sankei, quoted by Reuters. The rules also affect "resist," a thin layer used to transfer circuit patterns to substrates.
Japanese exporters will have to apply for permission each time they want to ship to South Korea, a process that can take 90 days. At the moment Japan is said to produce about 90% of the world's fluorinated polyimide and resist, and 70% of its etching gas.
A resolution of the dispute meanwhile appears distant. The Japanese government insists that the forced labor issue was resolved in 1965, when diplomatic ties with South Korea were restored, and since January, South Korea has reportedly ignored requests for talks.
Samsung and LG are believed to be Apple's main OLED suppliers for iPhones, which could impose a crunch ahead of the launch of 2019 models. In theory Apple could turn to the likes of Japan Display -- in which it's recently thought to have sunk $100 million -- but that firm is used only for iPhone LCDs and Apple Watch OLED panels, since its OLED capacity still lags behind rivals.
The Japanese government is halting preferential treatment for the export of fluorinated polyimide -- used in smartphone displays -- and high-purity hydrogen fluoride, used for etching silicon, said Japan's Sankei, quoted by Reuters. The rules also affect "resist," a thin layer used to transfer circuit patterns to substrates.
Japanese exporters will have to apply for permission each time they want to ship to South Korea, a process that can take 90 days. At the moment Japan is said to produce about 90% of the world's fluorinated polyimide and resist, and 70% of its etching gas.
A resolution of the dispute meanwhile appears distant. The Japanese government insists that the forced labor issue was resolved in 1965, when diplomatic ties with South Korea were restored, and since January, South Korea has reportedly ignored requests for talks.
Samsung and LG are believed to be Apple's main OLED suppliers for iPhones, which could impose a crunch ahead of the launch of 2019 models. In theory Apple could turn to the likes of Japan Display -- in which it's recently thought to have sunk $100 million -- but that firm is used only for iPhone LCDs and Apple Watch OLED panels, since its OLED capacity still lags behind rivals.
Comments
War is a nasty business. I’m not sure why South Korea is focusing on steel, the forced “comfort girl” camps were much worse, China is still pissed... Humans are vindictive as hell. In this case, my first guess is someone is manipulating the public for political gain.
“Politicians were mostly people who'd had too little morals and ethics to stay lawyers.”
― George R.R. Martin
It’s actually fairly easy to be careful in how we treat others. If you think kindness to fellow humans is that difficult, please either learn how empathy works (yes, you can learn it) or become a hermit. Complaining about “political correctness” doesn’t excuse a person’s unkind or cruel behavior.
Besides: Are you Korean or Japanese with family who were involved in the issue presented by this article? If not, you have no place making judgments about the people who are / were involved.
Let's accept without dispute that forced labor and massive human rights violations of Korean people occurred at Japan's hands some three generations ago. It's not hard at all to image that some compensation is owned by Japan to Korea for these violations.
It's also easy to image a compensation strategy that gives appropriate satisfaction to those harmed while preserving positive relationships between current generations, rather than inventing more enemies.
This is yet another country that has acknowledged their atrocities and seemed to make amends.
So it can can be done.
https://youtu.be/iKcWu0tsiZM
Education has been replaced with indoctrination.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2005/01/17/SKorea-discloses-sensitive-documents/UPI-38131105952315/
"The government has declassified explosive documents relating to the 1965 Korea-Japan Basic Treaty. They show that the government at the time had originally demanded US$364 million in compensation for some 1.03 million Koreans forced into labor or military service during the Japanese occupation."
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2005/01/17/2005011761043.html
Understandable why the Japanese are pissed. They offered individual compensation...at a time when most of the victims were still alive. The S. Korean government declined and said they would handle it. They didn't. Instead they took the $800M in grant and loans and developed their industries and infrastructure which was generally the smart thing to do. Reneging on the deal? Not so much.
The politics is that Moon Jae-in wants to look tough vs the Japanese. Which is fine unless Japan gets annoyed enough to retaliate in ways to make SK hurt. Which is what they are doing because the dollar amounts are relatively small...now it's become the point of the thing.