Japan and South Korea: A Time for Reconciliation?

Former Prime Minister Moon of South Korea, left, and former Prime Minister Abe of Japan. The two had a famously strained relationship. Source.

The recent resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe due to health reasons promises to change the landscape of Japanese foreign relations, especially with its neighbor South Korea. Despite their status as robust, developed democracies who share strong relations with the West, Japan and South Korea’s relationship has been strained by Japan’s colonial legacy and imperialist actions in the early 20th century. During World War II, as many as 7.8 million Koreans were conscripted into forced labor by Japan, ranging from military service to sex slavery. Known as “comfort women” at the time, women and girls were kidnapped from conquered regions of Korea and forced to serve as prostitutes for the Japanese military. Japan did not acknowledge the existence of comfort women until 1993, and did not formally apologize until 2015. Despite the payment of reparations to surviving victims, the scars of Imperial Japanese rule remain etched in the Korean psyche and guide current views of Japan, especially given Japan’s reluctance to confront and sincerely apologize for these issues. The issue of forced laborers outside of comfort women remains as well, which Japan has not paid direct reparations for. 

Relations have worsened under Abe’s leadership, with South Korea viewing Abe as overly nationalist and intent on glorifying Japan’s militaristic past. Abe’s flagship initiative during his tenure was the repeal of Article 9 of Japan’s constitution, in which Japan pledged to renounce war and the maintenance of “war potential”. This led to Abe’s immense unpopularity in South Korea, with the South Korean public holding an even more negative view of him than of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. From the Japanese perspective, South Korea has damaged relations by repeatedly bringing up old grievances that Japan has apologized officially for and feels are resolved. There has been little progress in resolving other points of contention as well, with disputes ranging from Japanese Prime Minister visits to a shrine that houses the remains of Japanese World War II military leaders, to the return of Korean cultural artifacts taken by Japan when Korea was its colony. 

The consolidation of an Asian bloc against Chinese influence is a top priority for the United States, and the strained relationship between South Korea and Japan has been problematic in creating a united front. With aggressive Chinese actions in Asia ramping up in the recent past, including expansion in the South China Sea and disputes with India in the Ladakh region, both Japan and South Korea understand the necessity of aligning their foreign policy goals to contain China’s authoritarian influence. It is impossible to say whether a new Japanese Prime Minister will be able to overcome the decades of resentment between the two nations, but recent conciliatory statements made by South Korean President Moon Jae-in regarding the mending of ties bode well for future cooperation.