If your company sources critical materials from Japan and components from Korea, improving diplomatic ties should not be treated as a supply-chain guarantee.
Japan and South Korea have strong reasons to cooperate: security concerns, deeply connected industries, and shared commercial interests. They also retain sources of friction, including historical disputes, domestic politics, export controls, and strategic competition.
For business leaders, the useful question is not whether the two countries will “truly” grow closer. It is whether a contract will still work when political conditions change.
The most valuable step is to turn a generic force majeure clause into an operational change-in-law mechanism.
A clause should address:
- when a supplier must report an export-license delay;
- who is responsible for applying for approvals and documenting progress;
- whether existing inventory must be released;
- when the buyer may activate alternative sourcing;
- how added compliance and logistics costs are allocated;
- whether the affected portion of an order may be terminated; and
- what happens to advance payments, tooling, specifications, and technical materials.
Force majeure may help allocate liability. It does not, by itself, keep a factory running.
My practical focus in cross-border commerce is therefore simple: identify the contract with the longest replacement lead time and stress-test it against a 90-day licensing delay. If the agreement provides no workable path for inventory, payment suspension, substitute supply, or termination, diplomatic optimism will not cure the drafting gap.
Local regulatory questions should be confirmed under current Japanese or Korean law with local counsel.
If your Japan–Korea supply chain depends on one critical contract, send me the structure. We can map where performance would fail before the policy environment changes.
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Mike Wu, China-licensed Attorney · Cross-border practice
4 languages (CN/EN/ES/JA)
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