Olympus Exits Camera Market in Korea

[ex machina]

Olympus Exits Camera Market in Korea
https://petapixel.com/2020/05/20/olympus-exits-camera-market-in-korea/

That's kind of surprising news to me -- I would've thought Olympus would do well there.

 

[RichDesmond]

Very surprising...and not good.

 

[drd1135]

Supposedly, this is connected to animosities going back to WWII and Korean Tariffs or whatever on Japanese goods. (I am not taking sides here.) I guess this became too much for Olympus to be profitable there.

 

[2112]

Very sad to see them go....

 

[ex machina]

Supposedly, this is connected to animosities going back to WWII and Korean Tariffs or whatever on Japanese goods. (I am not taking sides here.) I guess this became too much for Olympus to be profitable there. I am not taking sides here.

Huh. The Petapixel article had a link to the Korea Times source, but I didn't click on it because I thought it wouldn't be in English -- I was wrong. From the KT article:

Regarding whether the company's move is in response to ongoing anti-Japan sentiment and voluntary boycott movement against all Japanese products in South Korea, an Olympus Korea official denied such speculation. Last year Japan removed South Korea from its list of preferred trading partners.

"Olympus Korea decided to wind out our camera business here on the background that the volume of the digital camera market is dwindling and the sales of our camera products are also decreasing," the official said.

Koreans began the voluntary move to boycott goods and service made by Japanese makers when Tokyo announced it would start to impose tougher restrictions on exports of materials used for semiconductors and displays last July in reaction to Seoul's top court ruling in October 2018 that ordered Nippon Steel to compensate surviving South Korean victims of wartime forced labor.

 

[wimg]

They did announce this a couple of months ago already. Dwindling sales, but also problems with parts procurement lines, and even some QC problems. In addition, they have upgraded, enhanced and enlarged their Japan plant anyway, so they do not need their plant in Korea anymore.

This was put into motion quite a while ago already, well before the current crisis anyway.

Kind regards, Wim

 

[Robstar1963]

From reading elsewhere the closure of Olympus’s business in Korea would seem to be at least partly politically motivated with regard to ongoing friction between Japan and Korea going back to WW2 and tit for tat measures imposed by both sides
It may be that turnover and profit were already marginal there and the recent increase in friction may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back (not to mention the effect on the business structure of COVID 19)

 

[Pluttis]

This is not really unique for Olympus or any indication that they will close down in other countries...basically every Japanese manufacturers/companies have problems in South Korea due to their boycott against Japanese products...Japanese products just dont sell well there...there are many Japanese companies that have pulled out from the South Korean market before Olympus

 

[beameup]

Their "animosity" goes back a century. People here in Asia seem to have long memories.

 

[RichDesmond]

This is not really unique for Olympus or any indication that they will close down in other countries...basically every Japanese manufacturers/companies have problems in South Korea due to their boycott against Japanese products...Japanese products just dont sell well there...there are many Japanese companies that have pulled out from the South Korean market before Olympus

I was in Korea a couple of years ago, one thing that struck me was the scarcity of Japanese cars.
If the Koreans have a decent non-Japanese option they’ll take it.
Given the history it’s not too surprising.

 

[Ross the fiddler]

They did announce this a couple of months ago already. Dwindling sales, but also problems with parts procurement lines, and even some QC problems. In addition, they have upgraded, enhanced and enlarged their Japan plant anyway, so they do not need their plant in Korea anymore.

This was put into motion quite a while ago already, well before the current crisis anyway.

Kind regards, Wim

What plant in Korea? They are pulling out sales of cameras but will still maintain them till March 2026 there & also will continue scientific & medical there though.