ABSTRACT
South Korea and Japan are democracies with close economic ties. However, contemporary bilateral relations have been fraught with tensions over history. Why has this been the case? Scholars have flagged history, domestic and economic diversionary benefits, and the role of the US as possible answers. This chapter argues that there is a need for greater specificity in scales and sectors of analysis. The 1965 Treaty of Normalisation between the two countries created a system within which two divergent official interpretations of history are a constant, and policy area or sector-specific calculations and preferences are variables.
