09.02.21
Japanese cosmetics manufacturer DHC Corp. will withdraw from the South Korean market after nearly 20 years, company officials announced Thursday.
DHC Corp. announced its intent to close its business in the country and discontinue online sales of its products by mid this month on the website of its South Korean branch due to plummeting sales.
DHC Corp. has been under fire in the past for its discriminatory comments against ethnic Korean residents of Japan. Late last year, company CEO Yoshiaki Yoshida used a racial slur against Korean-Japanese people. In a since-deleted comment he left on the company website, he wrote this about rival firm Suntory, referring to their usage of several Japanese television personalities with Korean ancestry in its commercials: "DHC is a purely Japanese firm, including the TV personalities we use."
He also went on to refer to Suntory's usage of Japanese-Korean models as ‘Chontory,' which is a defamatory term for Koreans in Japan.
A boycott of DHC products has been staged in South Korea, and department stores have reportedly halted the selling of their products.
In May, DHC Corp. removed Yoshida's message from its website amid backlash from both South Korea and Japan.