The relationship between Japan and South Korea is a most complex one, tainted by the historical experience of Japan’s annexation of Korea at the beginning of the twentieth century. It has also to a great extent been shaped by the power relations in the area. The way in which Korea was divided into two parts, along the 38th Parallel, after the Second World War was to have implications for Japanese-Korean relations. So was the Korean War, as well as the Cold War, which put Japan and South Korea into the same anti-communist camp. However, the two allies of the USA never seemed to become natural allies of each other, and did not even normalize their relationship until 1965. To a certain extent the two countries have followed the same path of democratization and development into market economies. Living standards and technological standards are high in both, and they are the only two countries in Asia that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). There are many similarities but also many differences between the two countries. A number of ‘issues’ between them – such as territorial disputes over the Dokdo/Takeshima islands, the way history is portrayed in textbooks, whether Japan has apologized with sincerity for its past deeds in Korea, the ‘comfort women’ or Japanese prime ministers’ visits to the Yasukuni Shrine – linger on. How these are treated as well as what kind of cooperation is undertaken depends to a certain extent on domestic politics, but their relationship has always also been affected by what is happening in the surrounding area. Currently there are tremendous changes ongoing in Northeast Asia. The most obvious is the rise of China, both in the form of economic development, where the Chinese economy is predicted in the near future to overtake the Japanese one and become the world’s second-largest, and in the field of politics and international relations, where China is becoming more proactive and is taking a leadership position on issues such as the negotiations with North Korea concerning nuclear disarmament. The announcement by North Korea that it has become a nuclear power is of course another important change. Both Japan and South Korea are widely affected by the changes in power relations taking place in Northeast Asia. However, to talk about the relationship between those two countries alone is to take too narrow an approach. Their relationship cannot be understood without taking the whole history of the Korean

Peninsula into consideration. Today we have two separate states, the Republic of Korea (ROK or South Korea) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea), but we cannot draw a line at the formation of the modern states after the end of the Pacific War when looking at the relations with Japan: we have to look further back in time. The traditional security partner of both Japan and South Korea, the USA, has recently gone through its worst economic crisis since the Second World War and has concentrated its security policy initiatives on actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, in a way, has left its allies in Northeast Asia without much attention. On some issues the USA has even been by-passing both Japan and South Korea showing a stronger interest in cooperation with China. Substantial changes are indeed occurring on the world scene. These are driven forward by, among other forces, that of globalization. The information technology revolution and improved communications have made global interaction easy. Recently China has been the driver of economic growth, but we now have a number of other countries in the ‘BRIC’ group (Brazil, Russia, India and China) that are also beginning to play a more important role. The changes in power relations have been ongoing for some time, although only recently have they become clearly visible. In this book we will focus on the implications of the changes in the world, and in Northeast Asia in particular, for the Japanese-South Korean relationship, which can be considered as standing at a crossroads. Will the two countries choose roughly the same path or will they orient themselves in different directions in adjusting to changing power relations? How will this affect the relationship between the two? Will we see more competition, conflict or more cooperation? Can general conclusions on this be drawn or will it depend on the areas and issues at stake? Why should we care about this relationship in the first place? The answer to that is that anyone who is interested in culture or economic development, peace and security, as well as what is happening in Northeast Asia, should definitely care. The development taking place in the area will be affected by the JapaneseSouth Korean relationship. In the process of the building of an East Asia Community, how Japan and South Korea come to terms is crucial for the future development of the whole area. So is the stance both of them take towards North Korea and the nuclear issue. And, as both countries are governed by democratically elected parties, the way in which the peoples of Japan and South Korea see each other is also important for future cooperation. The literature on Japanese-South Korean relations generally focuses on some specific angle of the relationship. There are quite a few books on the economic relationship. Some of them, such as Dirk Pilat’s The Economics of Rapid Growth: The Experience of Japan and Korea,1 take a more comparative approach whereas other authors, like Robert Castley, talk about Japan’s role for the development of the South Korean economy2 and others such as Ingyu Oh look at the relations between the state and business in both countries.3 Several works deal with the history issues4 or foreign policy5 and some also include the role of the USA or other great powers in the area.6 Victor D. Cha’s book

Alignment Despite Antagonism7 is an excellent work and an example of a detailed analysis of the relations between Japan and South Korea and the role that the USA plays in their security relations, but, although it was published in 1999, it mainly focuses on the period up to the end of the 1980s. There are also those that look at the relationship from either a Korean or a Japanese perspective.8 Then there is, of course, also literature in Japanese and Korean.9 This book adds to the existing literature by taking a multidisciplinary approach researching the relationship from various angles such as politics, security, economic affairs, culture and immigration issues. It does this at the very moment when the relationship is standing at a crossroads and big changes are ongoing in Northeast Asia. The scholars are Japanese, Korean, American and European, and all bring in perspectives from their respective cultural backgrounds. This introductory chapter will provide a brief historical background to the Japanese-South Korean relationship from past to present. The main emphasis will be on the last century and particularly on developments since the end of the Second World War. It will not look at the relationship in isolation but will contextualize it in the general developments in the world and in Northeast Asia in particular. It will pinpoint some of the major issues still lingering between the two countries and present some of the theoretical frames that have been used in analysing the relationship and a number of variables that have to be taken into consideration. Finally, a new model or framework for analysis will be proposed. After that follows a short summary of each of the following chapters. As the book takes a multidisciplinary approach these will not be using exactly the same theoretical framework or necessarily bring up the same variables, but they will all make their respective contributions within the model that in the end will be used to analyse the Japanese-South Korean relationship.