Jun 20,2019 Country Reports

Country Report: China (June 2019)

In the spring of 2019, Chinese experts assessed China’s relations with the United States and Russia forty years after reform and opening began. They also evaluated China–Japan–South Korea and China–India–Russia relations. They analyzed the current US–Japan alliance and the US “securitization” of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. Conspicuous in many of these […]

Danielle F. S. Cohen (assisted by Dong Jiaxin)

Cold War , Diaoyutai/Senkaku , Dokdo/Takeshima , freedom of navigation , South China Sea , trilateralism , US-Japan alliance

Apr 22,2019 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (April 2019)

In early spring Japanese media noted the upcoming transition to the Reiwa era on May 1, the plan for Donald Trump to come in late May for a state visit and the first official meeting of a foreign leader with the new emperor, and hoopla over the G20 summit in Osaka a month later. In […]

Editorial Staff

2020 Tokyo Olympics , comfort women , conscripted labor , Dokdo/Takeshima , shinilpa , US-China trade war

Apr 15,2019 Open Forum

Explaining South Korea’s Sharp Shift in 2018 toward Japan

Japan-ROK relations stand at a great crossroads. What brought about this big test was the ruling issued in October 2018 by the South Korean Supreme Court on conscripted labor or, more precisely, the judgment concerning Korean wartime workers.1 With this, the court has recognized the right of these workers to claim compensation from Japanese firms, […]

Kimura Kan*

comfort women , conscripted labor , Dokdo/Takeshima , Kono Declaration , Rising Sun flag dispute , Yasukuni Shrine

Apr 19,2018 Alternative Scenarios

Negative Scenario II

Jennifer Lind has sketched positive prospects for South Korean-Japanese relations and the history issue. She broadly finds that geopolitical pressures will overwhelm historical narratives of animosity or re-write them in such a way as to be useful for current geopolitical needs. This is a realist and instrumentalist approach to historical disputes. The substance of the […]

Robert Kelly

anti-Japanism , comfort women , Dokdo/Takeshima , Park Geun-hye

Apr 19,2018 Alternative Scenarios

Positive Scenario II

Those hoping for progress in historical reconciliation between Japan and South Korea would have been disappointed by Seoul’s recent commemoration of the March 1 independence movement. Such holidays provide moments in which leaders contribute to national narratives about the past: narratives that can help or hinder reconciliation with former adversaries. President Moon Jae-in chose the […]

Jennifer Lind

anti-Koreanism , comfort women , Dokdo/Takeshima , Flying Tigers , March 1 address

Mar 19,2018 Country Reports

Country Report: Japan (April 2018 with Focus on Korea)

Not only was Abe battered by a domestic scandal, his foreign policy was rocked by diplomacy, history, and trade shocks. The North Korean presence at the Winter Olympics saw Japanese media warning about Seoul turning soft and breaking away from the “maximum pressure” approach of Tokyo and Washington, which was reinforced by warnings in early […]

Editorial Staff

“smile diplomacy” , comfort women , Dokdo/Takeshima , Pyeongchang Olympics , Six-Party Talks , Yasukuni

Mar 01,2018 Open Forum

With Friends Like These: Japan-ROK Cooperation and US Policy

Although they share a common ally, history and politics keep Japan and South Korea at arm’s length and severely limit their defense cooperation. Since at least the mid-1990s, American realists—and not a few Japanese and South Korean analysts—have anticipated that the regional environment, growing steadily more dangerous, would bring these status quo democracies closer together, […]

Eric Heginbotham , Richard Samuels

comfort women , Dokdo/Takeshima , GSOMIA , Three Eyes , Yasukuni

Feb 19,2018 Alternative Scenarios

Positive Scenario I

“History Bows to Strategy” In East Asia, disputes over history seem to be either roiling the region’s international relations—or lurking just beneath the surface. China emphasizes Japan’s atrocities in the Sino-Japanese war, notably the Nanjing Massacre, in its history education, commemoration, and state-controlled media. History issues also rankle Seoul and Tokyo. During the Park Geun-hye […]

Jennifer Lind

Ahn Jung-geun , comfort women , Dokdo/Takeshima , Nanjing Massacre , Senkaku/Diaoyu , Yasukuni Shrine

Aug 29,2016 Special Forum

Japanese views of Korean history

For many Japanese, Korean history—including the history of South Korean ties to the outside world—is viewed through the lens of the country’s modern relations with Japan. Whether looking at the ups and downs of diplomacy, the competition for the favor of US administrations, or the prospect of cooperation on regionalism, Japanese often seem preoccupied with […]

Alexis Dudden

comfort women , Dokdo/Takeshima , history problems" , Kono Declaration , Revisionism , ryodo , textbooks , Yasukuni

Mar 07,2014 Country Reports

Country Report: South Korea (March 2014)

Two themes have been in the forefront in Korean media coverage of international relations in the region: diplomacy related to reunification and ROK-Japan relations. The former was sparked by President Park’s New-Year Speech, saying “reunification is like hitting a jackpot (통일은 대박이다).” As two major powers also mentioned reunification (Secretary of State John Kerry touched […]

Editorial Staff (prepared by Han Minjeong)

Dokdo/Takeshima , Germany , Germany Reunification , reunions , textbooks , two-Korea policy , UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights