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Japan-South Korea relations
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East Asian relations Cold comfort
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SEOUL AND TO KYO History divides South Korea and Japan. They have a rare chance to make up
The flight time between Seoul and Tokyo is just under two hours. Yet the last same summit, Mr Lee and Mr Noda clashed over the issue of “comfort women”, as Kotime a leader of South Korea or Japan paid a state visit to the other was in 2011, when Lee Myungbak, then South Korea’s president, went to see Noda Yoshihiko, Japan’s prime minister at the time. Mr Lee praised Mr Noda’s recent goodwill gesture of returning some 1,205 royal books, which Japan had filched from South Korea during colonial times. Mr Noda held an intimate dinner party in Kyoto in honour of Mr Lee’s 70th birthday and 41st wedding anniversary. The two leaders expressed their desire to build a “futureoriented relationship” between their countries.
Along with China, Japan and South Korea are East Asia’s economic powerhouses. Unlike their giant neighbour, they are established democracies and staunch allies of America. They are also wary of China’s growing clout in the region, to say nothing of the threat from a bellicose North Korea. But despite their shared contemporary interests, the past divides them. During the reans and others forced into brothels for the benefit of Japanese soldiers during the second world war were euphemistically called (a memorial to the women is pictured). The goodwill quickly turned to renewed bad faith. A mix of historical grievances and fresh disputes has continued to curdle relations for a decade. The problems stem from divergent memories about Japan’s colonisation of Korea between 1910 and 1945 and the suffering it inflicted on Koreans. It looked for a brief moment in 2015 as if the two might begin to put the past behind them. That year, Japan’s Abe Shinzo and South Korea’s Park Geunhye, the countries’ leaders at the time, agreed a “final and irreversible” deal on the matter of comfort women. Mr Abe issued an official apology. His government gave ¥1bn ($7.4m) to a foundation to compensate victims. Ms Park’s successor, Moon Jaein, was critical of the deal from its inception. In 2018, a year after he was elected, he ordered the foundation to dissolve. That year the country’s Supreme Court twice upheld rulings ordering Japanese firms to compensate South Koreans forced to work in their factories to aid the Japanese war effort. Japan, which considers such claims settled through a treaty signed in 1965, was aghast. The ruling created a formal legal barrier to rapprochement. But attitudes on both sides hardened too.
A window of opportunity to improve relations may now be opening, if only briefly. Mr Moon finished his term in May. His successor, Yoon Sukyeol, has renewed the call for “futureoriented” ties with Japan. Kishida Fumio, Japan’s prime minister, faces upperhouse elections on July 10th, which his Liberal Democratic Party (ldp) is on course to win. He will then have up to three years before the next national vote. Both leaders have stressed the importance of working together amid an ever more challenging regional environment.
Since Mr Yoon took office, links between the countries have begun to revive. He signalled his intent to patch things up by sending a delegation to Tokyo in April. On June 29th American, Japanese and South Korean leaders met to discuss security on the sidelines of a nato summit for the first time in nearly five years. On July 4th the two countries’ big business associations held their first meeting in three years. They urged their political leaders to
