The world has been fixated on Donald Trump's tariffs
on China, but a new trade war is emerging
in Asia, this time between Japan and South Korea.
What started as a historical dispute over forced labour
during Japan's wartime rule on the Korean peninsula has
swiftly turned into a major economic and political crisis
for Seoul.
Tokyo believes that compensation for wartime forced labour was
settled under a 1965 treaty.
But South Korean courts have allowed individual claims
to be made against Japanese companies.
Blaming a loss of trust and security issues,
Shinzo Abe's government has turned to export controls,
threatening to disrupt supplies of key technologies
to South Korean companies in a bid
to pressure South Korean president Moon Jae-in.
South Koreans are outraged, boycotting Japanese-made goods.
And in the most extreme cases, two men
have died after setting themselves on fire in protest.
Some international experts are also
worried that Mr Abe is following the Trump
playbook in weaponising trade.
South Korea's tech giants, including the world's two
biggest makers of memory chips, Samsung and SK Hynix,
are urgently looking for replacement sources
for some of the key materials and components
that they use to make computer chips.
Any long-term disruptions to the South Korean companies
will cause serious headaches across the global technology
supply chain.
There are also fears that the dispute will
drive a lasting wedge between these key US allies
in Asia, just as Washington needs their co-operation
to deal with North Korea's missile tests
and the rising threats posed by China and Russia.