Published on July 26, 2019. This article introduces a serialized column by Kudan Yasunosuke in the monthly magazine Hanada and examines the Japan–South Korea confrontation over Japan’s stricter export controls on three key semiconductor-related materials. It argues that South Korea destroyed the framework of trust through its disregard of the Japan–South Korea treaty, the comfort women agreement, the wartime labor issue, and the radar-lock incident, while praising Prime Minister Abe’s diplomatic handling as skillful political combat.

July 26, 2019.
What a joke.
Everything began with South Korea’s destruction of the international promises, the framework, established by the Japan–South Korea Treaty.
Furthermore, there was its disregard of the comfort women agreement, and likewise the wartime labor issue.
The following is from a serialized column printed at the beginning of Hanada, one of the monthly magazines published today that every Japanese citizen must read.
I had thought that the writer of this column might be Takayama Masayuki, so when I mentioned it to a well-read friend, he said, “Takayama Masayuki is a graduate of Kudan High School…”.
Then the probability that I am right is high, I thought.
(Laughs).
Kudan Yasunosuke.
Prime Minister Abe’s skill in political combat.
On July 1, the Abe administration announced measures to strengthen export controls to South Korea on three raw-material items indispensable for semiconductor manufacturing.
For countries with which there is a relationship of trust, comprehensive exports are permitted as preferential treatment.
This is called a white country.
Japan judged that its relationship of trust with South Korea had been lost, and therefore it removed the preferential treatment and decided to examine export cases individually.
For the time being, Japan produces 70 to 90 percent of the world’s supply of the three raw-material items in question, and moreover, they cannot be stored for long.
＊Even on this crucial point alone, NHK reports nothing at all and is reporting as if it were a South Korean state broadcaster＊.
If these were stopped, it would become a life-or-death problem for the South Korean economy, in which semiconductors account for 20 percent of export value.
“Japan has struck our country’s vital point,” the anchor of KBS, Korean Broadcasting System, said in a strained voice, while South Korean newspapers carried headlines such as “Gunshots in an economic war,” and Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong hastily flew to Japan to seek relief measures.
When asked, “What were the results?” Lee returned to South Korea in silence.
Furthermore, people crowded around Son Masayoshi of SoftBank, who had visited South Korea, seeking his advice, and the country was in an uproar.
The Moon Jae-in administration demanded that Japan clarify the reason for saying that “the relationship of trust has been lost,” insisted that Japan’s latest measure was retaliation over the wartime labor issue, a rule violation that entangles politics with trade, and demanded consultation and withdrawal, declaring that if Japan did not comply, South Korea would file a complaint with the WTO, the World Trade Organization.
There is a reason why not only the South Korean side, but also Japanese media, took it as “retaliation over the wartime labor issue.”
At first, Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide explained the latest measures as follows when announcing them.
“Negative moves by the South Korean side that run counter to the friendly and cooperative relationship built up between the two countries have continued, and regarding workers from the former Korean Peninsula, the wartime labor issue, no satisfactory solution was presented by the time of the G20.
It has become difficult to work on export management based on a relationship of trust with South Korea, and we have decided to review the operation of the system.”
When reporters asked, “Is this a countermeasure against the wartime labor issue?” he added the following.
“This is a review of operations from the standpoint of properly implementing export control for the purpose of security, and it is not a countermeasure.”
This answer suggests the suspicion that South Korea has been sending the relevant items to North Korea in violation of economic sanctions against North Korea.
When South Korea reacted against this, the Japanese government leaked to the media an internal document created by South Korea’s export-control department.
According to it, among the more than 140 cases exposed by the South Korean government involving illegal exports from South Korea to North Korea and its friendly countries, more than 60 cases, astonishingly, involved items that could be used as materials for weapons of mass destruction, such as sarin and VX gas.
Regarding this, the South Korean side simply insists, “As you can see, we are exposing them,” and offers no proper explanation.
Among the three items whose export controls are being strengthened, some can also be diverted to military use.
Japan is not saying, “We will not export.”
As long as there is no reliable and sufficient explanation about South Korea’s export controls, it is too dangerous to export.
That is why Japan is saying that it is necessary to remove the preferential treatment and examine each case individually.
This Japanese argument would be fully persuasive wherever it is taken, whether to the United Nations or to the WTO.
South Korea sent a special envoy to the United States and requested mediation, but the United States has taken the position of watching how the situation develops and has not moved.
The fact that Abe had explained the matter to Trump in advance is having an effect.
With the United States, on which he had relied, turning its back on him, Moon Jae-in now has no move left.
With a sorrowful expression, on July 15, he issued the following message to the people.
“The historical issues of the past between Korea and Japan are like an awl in one’s pocket.
Although we had carefully handled the painful history of the past and economic issues separately, Japan has destroyed that framework.”
That is how he began.
What a joke.
Everything began with South Korea’s destruction of the international promises, the framework, established by the Japan–South Korea Treaty.
Furthermore, there was its disregard of the comfort women agreement, and likewise the wartime labor issue.
In addition, were not the hostile actions revealed by you, South Korea, including the radar-lock incident against a Self-Defense Forces aircraft and the incident in which the speaker of the South Korean National Assembly demanded an apology from the Emperor?
Moon Jae-in further says the following.
“We are paying attention to the fact that Japan’s measures began with export restrictions on semiconductor materials, which form the core of the South Korean economy.
South Korea will walk the path of diversifying its import sources or domestic production.
I warn that, in the end, greater damage will be inflicted on the Japanese economy.”
He ended with lines that can only be called something like “tearful intimidation,” but he cannot hide his expression of vexation and anguish at having been cornered by Japan.
The more I look at the series of events, the more I am reminded anew of the skill in political combat possessed by the man named Abe Shinzo.