Rising tensions between South Korea and Japan

More than 30% of flights between Japan and South Korea have been canceled since March. According to Japan’s transport ministry, about 940 flights were canceled amid rising tension between two countries.

The Japan National Tourism Organization estimates that 201,200 South Koreans visited Japan last month, down 58 percent from a year before. A record high of over 7.5 million South Koreans visited Japan last year. However, the number has been falling since July, when Japan’s government tightened the law on some export products to South Korea.

The restrictions were made after a South Korean top court’s ruling last year that ordered some of Japanese companies to compensate the South Korean victims who were forced by Imperial Japan into hard labor without pay during the 1910-1945 period. As a result, in August Japan dropped South Korea off its whitelist of trusted trading partners that are given preferential export procedures.

In response, Seoul decided to take Tokyo off its whitelist of trusted export partners.

photo: Kim Kyung-Hoon / AFP / Getty Image