Originally published on April 17, 2018.
This chapter argues that, amid electricity shortages and soaring power costs after the earthquake, Japanese companies were being lured to South Korea while the Japanese public was forced to pay high prices for electricity generated by Korean-affiliated power producers.
It sharply questions how the power policies of the Democratic Party government led to the overseas relocation of Japanese firms and the contraction of domestic employment.

2019-04-16
The Japanese people had no way to resist a situation in which they were forced to buy expensive electricity generated by South Korean power producers, while opportunities for employment were also shrinking as domestic companies moved to South Korea.

This is a chapter I published on 2018-04-17 under the title:
“I cannot be the only one who feels an anger so intense it makes one’s bowels boil when reading this chapter.”
What follows is a continuation of the previous chapter.

South Korea lures Japanese companies suffering from the electricity problem.

After the earthquake, electricity in Japan became chronically short, and prices also soared.

The electricity problem also came to encourage Japanese companies to move overseas.

For Japanese companies already struck by the prolonged recession under the Democratic Party government and then hit again by the Great East Japan Earthquake, the electricity problem was like adding insult to injury.

For some companies, it was at a level that could rightly be called fatal.

If a way out could be found through overseas expansion, it was only natural that management would feel compelled to choose that path.

But that also meant that Japan’s market would shrink, Japanese employment would become even more unstable, and people’s lives would grow more difficult.

In such circumstances, South Korea aggressively began promoting corporate inducement, treating Japan’s electricity shortage as a business opportunity.

“We have no choice but to move operations overseas.
That kind of new trend emerged because of the earthquake.
If we do not avoid a situation where there is no electricity and goods cannot be produced, it becomes a matter of life and death for companies.”
(President Masanori Okada, JX Nippon Mining & Metals)

It is South Korea that has fixed its sights on such Japanese companies and is vigorously appealing to attract them.

Last week, an inspection group from Japanese companies arrived at Gunsan Station, two hours south of Seoul.

South Korea created in this area a vast reclaimed land zone called “Saemangeum” and designated it as a free economic zone.

In order to attract Japanese companies, it introduced sweeping preferential measures, including exemptions from corporate taxes and tariffs for five years.

“How electricity costs will develop is an extremely major concern for companies.
If they are to move overseas, we consider South Korea the leading candidate.”
(Mr. Tomomi Kanyama, Ajinomoto Korea)

“What was originally intended to become agricultural land is now being turned into a free economic zone.
It is remarkable, the force they have.”
(Mr. Koji Iwatsuki, Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance)

“In South Korea, electricity shortages are not a problem.
Furthermore, this region is only 600 kilometers from China’s Shandong Peninsula, giving it advantageous conditions for trade with China as well.”
(Mr. Lee Myeong-no, Commissioner of the Saemangeum Gunsan Free Economic Zone Authority)
(From TBS News, July 20, Heisei 23 [2011])

Korean-affiliated companies were entering Japan through the solar power business, while Japanese companies suffering from electricity shortages were being actively courted by South Korea.

The Japanese people had no way to resist a situation in which they were forced to buy expensive electricity generated by South Korean power producers, while opportunities for employment were also shrinking as domestic companies moved to South Korea.

To be continued.

I cannot be the only one who feels an anger so intense it makes one’s bowels boil when reading this chapter.
Faced with the awfulness and foolishness of the Democratic Party government of that time, Son, newspaper media such as Asahi Shimbun, and television media such as NHK, Japan will not survive unless, as I do, people raise the thunderous voice of Oda Nobunaga and sweep them away.