ABSTRACT
This chapter examines historical issues of a postwar Japan's relations with China and South Korea. Such issues include Imperial Japan's invasion of the Chinese mainland and brutal colonization of Korea, Japanese apologies, 'comfort women' for the Imperial Army, and Japanese Prime Ministers visits to the Yasukuni Shrine. The chapter analyzes the promising efforts at bilateral and trilateral economic cooperation and their insufficiency to ensure friendly ties. It discusses how leadership transition has impacted negatively on trilateral cooperation. Following that is an evaluation of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo's 'value diplomacy' based on a coalition of democracies and forging better ties with Beijing's neighbors to check a more 'assertive' China. In the absence of a geostrategic enemy, the political leaders of Japan, China and South Korea have to establish 'the rules of the game' to address their differences, and are likely to pander to nationalistic sentiments and to jostle for geostrategic advantage at the expense of greater trilateral cooperation in Northeast Asia.
