Japan’s relations with China and South Korea: antagonism despite interdependency

South Korean President Park Geun Hye remarked: “This could be referred to as the Asian paradox. We see deepening economic interdependence in Northeast Asia uneasily coexisting with tensions deriving from various historical issues that spill over into the political and security realms”.1 Despite the mutual benefits of deeper economic interdependency, Japan’s political relations with its neighbors China and South Korea have deteriorated over the past decade. Their occasional war of words and brinksmanship over territorial disputes (often intertwined with competing narratives of national histories), and the antagonism between their political elites also mirror the rising dislike felt for each other among their populations.