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This Week in AsiaEconomics

Japan makes frothy comeback to top South Korean beer imports in 5 years as boycott fades

  • Beer worth US$55.5 million was imported from Japan in 2023, as Korean consumers flock to brands such as Asahi and Kirin
  • Analysts say the recovery was helped by a strong marketing push and a fall in popularity in Chinese beer imports

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Japanese brewers such as Asahi and Kirin are once again dominating the imported beer market in South Korea. Photo: Shutterstock
Julian Ryall
Five years ago, it was virtually impossible to purchase a can of Japanese beer anywhere in South Korea. But now, Japan’s brewers are once again dominating the imported beer market. And that is music to the ears of brands such as Asahi and Kirin, which have been seeing domestic sales go flat.
South Korean imports from Japan recovered dramatically last year to take back the mantle of most popular foreign beers after languishing behind other brands for five years, according to data from the Korea Customs Service.

Beer worth US$55.5 million was imported from Japan in 2023, up sharply from US$14.5 million the previous year and a mere US$6.9 million in 2021 and US$5.7 million in 2020. Japanese beer imports had risen to a high of US$78.3 million in 2018 but began to fall out of favour the following year, slipping to US$39.7 million, after Tokyo and Seoul became embroiled in a major diplomatic row over the two nations’ shared history that led to boycotts of Japanese goods in South Korea.

The conflict began in 2018 after Korean courts ruled that former forced labourers from Japan’s colonial occupation era had the right to sue Japanese companies for damages. An incensed Japanese government then removed South Korea from its favoured trading partners list, leading to counter-sanctions and further diplomatic disputes.
As tensions rose, infuriated South Koreans announced broad boycotts of Japanese brands, from Toyota and Uniqlo to Asahi and Kirin beer. Sales were further harmed by the pandemic, with people encouraged to stay home and not socialise.

“Asahi Super Dry is supported by South Korean consumers as a high-quality, premium beer, and it was the most popular brand in the South Korean imported beer market for eight consecutive years between 2011 and 2018,” said Yoshiie Horii, senior manager of public relations for Asahi Group Holdings Ltd.

Horii told This Week in Asia that business shrank because of the boycott campaign in 2019 and the contraction of the beer market during Covid-19, but “sales are on the way to a significant recovery after 2022” when the pandemic began to end.

Korean consumers have also taken to the Asahi Super Nama Jokki Can, a 340-ml can that has been engineered to produce a fine foam when it is opened, giving it the taste of a draught beer poured in a bar, according to Horii.

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