Tamaki Japan-South Korea August 2019.pdf (379.44 kB)
It takes two to tango: The difficult Japan-South Korea relations as clash of realities
Why do Japan-South Korea relations remain difficult despite several efforts to overcome the past? Elite narratives in Japan and South Korea reify the bilateral relationship as a difficulty due to troublesome and insincere neighbour. For the Japanese policy elites, the difficulty is due to troublesome South Koreans unwilling to embrace future-oriented relationship; whereas for the South Korean policy elites, the insincere Japanese unwilling to address past wrong-doing is the source of the problem. The result is a self-fulfilling prophecy of an intractable mutual misapprehension, suggesting that the difficult relationship is here to stay. I analyze pronouncements by both the Japanese-and South Korean policy elites appearing in official documents and media reports for clues into the manner in which the bilateral relationship is reified in to a difficulty purportedly due to the recalcitrance of the neighbour. The narratives consistently show that both the Japanese-and South Korean policy elites consider the onus of improvement lies with the troublesome/insincere neighbour. In short, the bilateral relationship is a clash of realities, with the logical conclusion being that the difficult relationship will persist for the foreseeable future.
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Politics and International Studies
Published in
Japanese Journal of Political ScienceVolume
21Issue
1Pages
1-18Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)Version
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Rights holder
© Cambridge University PressPublisher statement
This article has been published in a revised form in Japanese Journal of Political Science https://doi.org/10.1017/S1468109919000161. This version is published under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND. No commercial re-distribution or re-use allowed. Derivative works cannot be distributed. © Cambridge University Press.Acceptance date
2019-08-04Publication date
2019-10-07Copyright date
2019ISSN
1468-1099eISSN
1474-0060Publisher version
Language
- en