South Korea-based East Asia Institute and Japan-based Genron NPO have conducted an annual joint survey on mutual perception between Korean and Japanese people since 2013. This year, 21.3 percent of Korean people responded that they like Japan, up from previous year’s 15.7 percent while 29.1 percent of Japanese people said that they like Korea, up from 23.8 percent. The portion with negative answer was still by far larger than the positive one but the result showed much improved favorable impression to each other. “The improvement is attributed to the agreement over the issue of the so-called “comfort women” through a summit meeting in November and foreign ministers’ meeting in December 2015, which marked the 50th year of the normalization of diplomatic relationships between the two countries,” said Lee Sook-jong, president of the East Asia Institute.

 

The issue of comfort women has been a long-standing irritant that had worsened the bilateral relationship. As Japan didn’t accept its wrongdoings that went against human rights, Korea had expressed its strong opposition, resulting in the worst level of bilateral relations since the beginning of diplomatic ties. In an effort to restore honor and dignity of victims and heal their deep scars in the heart, Tokyo agreed to fund some 1 billion Japanese yen (approx. 9.6 million U.S. dollars) with which Seoul agreed to found and run a foundation at the meeting between two nations’ foreign ministers last year. The decision was faced with opposition by some in both nations but turned out to be the second best option for a long-running fight whose solution seemed invisible in reality.

 

A man in his 20s threw a capsaicin power at the face of Kim Tae-hyeon, the inaugural head of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation, which launched to support the victims of comfort women on Wednesday. Capsaicin is an active component of chili peppers. Three public officials from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and one from police squad were also sent to a nearby hospital for treatment. It was an incident that made us feel dazed although no serious damage was caused.

 

It would be fine to have complaints against the agreement between Korea and Japan, and to oppose the newly-formed foundation. However, it would never be tolerated to make violent moves just because someone has a different view. People turn their back to the means of violence, which would cause harmful influence on the image of Korea in the international community as well. Tokyo is advised not to make any more inappropriate remarks that fester painful scars of the victims. The two governments and people from the two nations should make joint efforts so that the conflict over the comfort women issues would not be provoked again.