A ticket counter for Japan-bound flights at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, is mostly vacant on Aug. 1, 2019. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of passengers who used South Korea’s Incheon International Airport to visit Japan sharply decreased late last month, its operator said Friday, as an anti-Japan boycott campaign spreads fast amid a trade and history row.
Japan imposed tighter controls on high-tech exports to South Korea on July 4 and decided Friday to drop the country from a list of trusted trade partners.
The move, which South Koreans view as retaliation for Seoul court rulings that ordered Japanese firms to compensate victims of wartime forced labor, sparked a campaign to boycott a wide range of Japanese goods and services.
The Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) said since July 15, the number of people traveling to Japan via the nation’s main gateway was about 608,000, down 1.8 percent from about 620,000 of the same period last year.
Especially, between July 26-31, the figure dropped 9.9 percent on-year.
The number was unchanged on-year in early July but began to decline in the middle of the month when the boycott started in earnest, the IIAC said.
In contrast, the total number of Incheon airport passengers since July 15 has increased 7.22 percent on-year.
(Yonhap)
