Japan–South Korea relations

History

In line with the 1965 reconciliation treaties, Japan continued to improve its relations with South Korea. Tokyo extended an additional $200 million credit to Seoul, and Prime Minister Sato attended official functions in July, the first visit of a Japanese premier to postwar Korea. Nevertheless, Seoul objected violently to occasional visits by Japanese politicians to North Korea, to the continuation of Red Cross repatriation of Korean residents in Japan to North Korea, and to the proposal of Tokyo Governor Minobe to permit a pro-North Korean university in Tokyo. The Japanese Foreign Ministry opposed Minobe on this issue in order to prove its loyalty to South Korea. Meanwhile, contacts between Japan and South Korea increased through new air routes, tourism, and trade.

In 1975, South Korean–Japanese relations improved following the July "settlement" of a two-year-old feud that began when South Korean agents abducted Kim Dae-jung, an opposition leader (and future President of South Korea), from a Tokyo hotel. As a result of the settlement, a long-delayed ministerial conference was held in Seoul in September to discuss economic cooperation between the two countries. Japan joined the United States in providing assurances for South Korea's security. In a joint statement by Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Miki and President Ford declared: "The security of the Republic of Korea is ... necessary for peace and security in East Asia, including Japan"

Trade and partnership

In 1996 FIFA announced that the two countries would jointly host the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The next few years would see leaders of both countries meet to warm relations in preparations for the games. Though citizens of both countries were initially unhappy about having to share the honors with the other, and the Liancourt Rocks controversy flared up again, the event turned out to be very successful.

Liancourt Rocks

The Liancourt Rocks, called Dokdo (독도, 獨島; "solitary island") in Korean and Takeshima (竹島; "bamboo island") in Japanese, are a group of islets in the Sea of Japan that is occupied by South Korea but its ownership is still disputed between South Korea and Japan. There are valuable fishing grounds around the islets and potentially large reserves of methane clathrate.

The territorial dispute is a major source of nationalist tensions between the two nations. Currently, South Korea occupies the island, which has its Korean Coast Guard stationed there, as well as two elderly Korean residents.

Sex slaves for Japanese military

Korea has been demanding official acknowledgement with a sincere apology and compensation for "Sex slaves" issue, the women who were forced to have sex with Imperial Japanese military soldiers during World War II. According to the World Conference on Japanese Military Sexual Slavery, enlisted to the military stations through force, kidnapping, coercion, and deception, the Korean Sex slaves, most of women under the age of 18, were forced to have sexual relationships with 30–40 soldiers each day. However an article in the New York Times says that "There is little evidence that the Japanese military abducted or was directly involved in entrapping women in Korea, which had been a Japanese colony for decades when the war began." because as an article in the Asahi Shimbun says "Prostitution agents were prevalent due to the poverty and patriarchal family system. For that reason, even if the military was not directly involved, it is said it was possible to gather many women through such methods as work-related scams and human trafficking." As the few surviving female victims continue to strive for official acknowledgment and a sincere apology, the Japanese court system has rejected such claims due to the length of time and claiming that there is no evidence.

In November 1990, the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military (한국정신대문제대책협의회; 韓國挺身隊問題對策協議會) was established in South Korea. In 1993, the government of Japan officially acknowledged the presence of wartime brothels. As of 2008, a lump sum payment of 43 million Korean won and a monthly payment of 0.8 million won are given to the survivors. The Japanese government has also arranged an organization that gives money and official letters of apology to the victims. Today, many of the surviving female victims are in their 80s. As of 2007, according to South Korean government, there are 109 survivors in South Korea and 218 in North Korea. The survivors in South Korea protest in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, Korea every Wednesday. The protest was held for 1000th time in December, 2011.

In December 2000, The Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery sat in Tokyo, Japan. During the proceedings, the judges of the Tribunal heard hours of testimony by 75 survivors, as well as reviewed affidavits and video interviews by countless others. The Tribunal's Judgment found Emperor Hirohito and other Japanese officials guilty of crimes against humanity and held that Japan bore state responsibility and should pay reparations to the victims.

In July 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution that Japan apologize for forcing women into sex slavery during World War II. The resolution was sponsored by Mike Honda (D-CA), a third-generation Japanese-American. On December 13, 2007, the European Parliament adopted a resolution that demands the Japanese government to apologize to the survivors of Japan's military sexual slavery system. This resolution was passed with 54 ayes out of 57 parliament members present.

On 28 December 2015, Japan and South Korea have agreed to settle the issue of "comfort women" forced to work in Japanese brothels during World War II, in their first such deal since 1965. Japan had made apology and will pay 1bn yen ($8.3m, £5.6m) to fund victims. The announcement came after Japan's foreign minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Seoul for discussions with his counterpart Yun Byung-se, following moves to speed up talks.

Cultural exchange

In spite of the many disputes that are negatively affecting the relations between the two nations, Japan and South Korea enjoy cultural exchanges with each other.

From South Korea to Japan

In recent years, South Korean pop culture experienced major popularity in Japan, a phenomenon dubbed the "Korean Wave" (韓流) among K-pop fans in Japan. The Korean Wave has sparked a fad for Korean movies, dramas, and pop music in Japan.

A Korean television series entitled Winter Sonata, which first appeared in Japan in April 2003, became a runaway hit in Japan, and has often been identified as a landmark in South Korean-Japanese cultural exchange. The female K-pop artist BoA is one of the most popular singers in Japan with six consecutive albums topping the billboard charts.

In more recent years various K-pop artists, including Super Junior, TVXQ, Choshinsung, Big Bang, Kara, Girls' Generation, and 2PM, have made their debuts in Japan, and these groups have contributed to the rebirth of the Korean Wave in Japan. Kara and Girls' Generation in particular has been topping numerous charts and awards in Japan. Numerous other groups, such as F.T. Island, SHINee and BEAST have also entered the Japanese market.

From Japan to South Korea

After the end of World War II, South Korea banned Japanese cultural imports such as music, film, video games, literature (manga). However, the ban was partially lifted under the Kim Dae-jung administration in 1998. In 2004, the ban on imports of Japanese CDs and DVDs was lifted.

Military relations

In 2012, it was reported that South Korea agreed to sign a military pact with Japan, possibly in response to threats from North Korea and China. The military agreement between South Korea and Japan is a military intelligence-sharing pact.

Both South Korea and Japan are US allies and have their own military alliances with the United States.

Both South Korea and Japan perceive North Korea as a threat.

Human exchange

Since Lee Myung-bak's visit to the Liancourt Rocks and demand for the emperor’s apology in 2012, the Japanese public's image of South Korea deteriorated significantly. Japanese tourists to South Korea declined to half from 3.5 million in 2012 to 1.8 million in 2015 while South Korean tourist doubled from 2 million in 2012 to 4 million in 2015.

Official view

On March 2, 2015 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan revised its official view of South Korea from "an important neighboring country which shares the basic common values of freedom, democracy, a market economy with Japan." to simply "the most important neighboring country for Japan." reflecting the deteriorated relations. The change was made on the next day of South Korean President Park Geun-hye's speech that Japan and South Korea, “both upholding values of liberal democracy and a market economy, are important neighbors ..." A Japanese government official said “There is distrust in South Korea’s judiciary and society.” In February 2012, the word "sharing of the basic values of basic human rights" had already been removed in the text.