EAI Special Report: The Co-evolution of Korea and Japan for a New Era 

Abstract

This report was planned and drafted with the goal of providing realistic policy alternatives for improving ROK-Japan relations. The authors begin by describing how the regional order in East Asia has shifted as a result of a rising China and the US "rebalance to Asia." This is also followed by a description of some structural constraints on the ROK and Japan including the international order and domestic constraints including their slowing economic growth and aging populations. The authors then move onto analyzing how ROK-Japan relations had deteriorated into their current low point by utilizing public opinion data and called for new diplomatic efforts to restore relations. Next, the authors address the history issues that have plagued ROK-Japan relations for decades and offer suggestions on how to overcome these serious problems including the "comfort women" and Dokdo issues. Finally, the authors offer six objectives for the governments of both countries including separating history issues from other pressing diplomatic concerns and building shared, complex identities.

Quotes from the Report

“The reason that the East Asia Institute (EAI) has prepared a new report in the midst of the countless conferences and reports released in 2015 is that both countries must go beyond improving bilateral relations and think in macroscopic terms of the whole region with a long-term vision to readjust the goals, values, and roles of the relationship in order to contribute to initiating new era in ROK-Japan relations.”

“A “three-track” approach will be suggested beyond the current “two-track” promoted by the governments of both countries as methods to overcome risk in the future: first, cooperation to expand both countries’ common benefits in security, prosperity, and the emerging stages; second, a proposal for avoiding mutual stimulation, healing inherent factors, and reconciling history; third, efforts to construct a collective identity of nations and regions in the long term.”

“The largest cause of mutual distrust and the main obstacle to cooperation between Korea and Japan is the history issue. In order to solve this problem, the first move should be for the governments of both countries to decide to separate historical tensions from domestic politics. If the both governments, in order to build up domestic political support, continue to encourage and abet the tensions created by historical issues, then distrust between the two countries will continue to grow.”

Authors

Young-Sun Ha is the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the East Asia Institute and also a professor emeritus at Seoul National University. He currently serves as a member of President Park Geun-hye’s civilian National Security Advisory Panel. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Washington and received his B.A. and M.A. from Seoul National University.

Yul Sohn is Dean and Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies at Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago.

Sook Jong Lee is the President of EAI and a professor at Sungkyunkwan University. Currently, she holds advisory positions in the South Korean government, including the Presidential National Security Advisory Group, Presidential Committee for Unification Preparation and councils for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Unification, and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). She received her B.A. from Yonsei University, and M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University.

Won-Deog Lee is a professor of International Studies at Kookmin University and the head of the Kookmin University’s Japan Research Center. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in international relations.

Chaesung Chun is the Chair of the Asia Security Initiative Research Center at East Asia Institute. He is a professor of the department of political science and international relations at Seoul National University and director of Center for International Studies at Seoul National University. He received his B.A. and M.A. from Seoul National University, and Ph.D. in international relations from Northwestern University.

Jae Jeong Chung is a professor of Korean history at the University of Seoul. He received his Ph.D. from Seoul National University in Korean history where he studied modern Korean history and Korea-Japan relations.