Korean Products Promotion Movement

Jo Man-sik and others founded the Korean Products Promotion Society in Pyongyang to urge Koreans to buy Korean goods. A national body formed in Seoul in 1923 and the movement spread.

With the Company Ordinance abolished in 1920 and tariffs on Japanese goods due to end in 1923, a movement arose to protect national capital. Under slogans such as "Our livelihood by our own hands" and "Koreans use Korean goods" it promoted local products, thrift and abstinence from alcohol and tobacco, joined by groups such as the Self-Production Society and women’s associations.

As demand grew, merchants and manufacturers raised prices, burdening ordinary people. Socialists criticized it as serving only the capitalist class, and with Japanese repression it gradually faded.