SPOTLIGHT
In 2019, Japan and Korea
started a new chapter
in jeopardizing their
commercial relations. Trade
has been the strongest link
between Seoul and Tokyo
since the end of WW2.
the Japanese offi cial aid for development and trade. After all,
Japan was said to become the fi rst economic superpower,
having surpassed the US by the end of the 20th century. All
those predictions were wrong.
Anyway, the best Japan could do to overcome its past
was to promote economic ties among its neighbours. And
it did. One can say that Japan became a trustful partner in
international trade. Japan’s imports and exports brought Asia
together, including China and South Korea. Japan needed
Asia and Asia needed Japan in terms of trade as well. Due to
globalization eff ects, it had no turning back. Like it or not,
economic integration was a natural and expected path.
What about diplomacy? Japanese diplomacy was said to
pursue peaceful values only in a UN-centered way.
At the end of the 20th century, new leaders drove
Japan into a diff erent path. Those leaders, bringing some
nationalism-oriented discourses, convinced themselves that
Japan had, somehow, to treat its neighbours the way they
deserved. The current Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, is one of
those leaders.
Along with the strengthening of the Japanese Self-Defense
Forces, Japanese foreign policy sought to face old problems
like the territorial disputes with China, Korea and Russia,
claiming its sovereignty over Dokdo/Takeshima (Korea);
Diaoyu/Senkaku (China) and Kuril Islands (Russia). That
old Japanese diplomacy no longer exists.
In 2019, Japan and Korea started a new chapter in
jeopardizing their commercial relations. As mentioned before,
trade has been the strongest link between Seoul and Tokyo
since the end of WW2. In August, the Japanese government
removed South Korea from a list of trusted trade partners
and declared that some strategic exports to South Korea will
be carefully verifi ed in order to confi rm if they can really be
exported since some raw materials could be used to build
weapons and war equipment.
Seoul responded to it and declared that Japan is using the
trade as a retaliation on the Dokdo/Takeshima case. And also,
Seoul declared that it does not intend to renew an intelligence-
sharing agreement with Japan (General Security of Military
Information Agreement), regarding North Korean activities,
which is critical for the security of the region. The Japanese
government regrets that Seoul has been taking this issue too
seriously into other sectors of bilateral cooperation.
What could be done now? I do not intend to say that they
must simply overcome those confl icts and forget about the
past. As we watch China rise and North Korea develop its
nuclear weapons, Japan, Korea and the US are still trying
to solve old and recurrent issues. If they cannot overcome
the past, they must learn from it. Provocative acts and
retaliations tend to jeopardize long lasting relations. As I
mentioned before, some confl icts will not have an end (or
peaceful end). The new Japanese policy towards territorial
confl icts is largely based on provocative actions, such as the
nationalization of the Sekaku islands in 2012, which were
already under Japanese sovereignty. Japan declared at that
time that the purchase of those islands somehow prevented
nationalist discourses and actions by some politicians which
could make things even worse. Apart from that, Japan urged
the US to confi rm that those islands would also be protected
under the security agreement in case of aggression by China.
Japan and South Korea have much in common and the
integration of East Asia should have both countries as leaders.
In international politics, having the same friends and the same
enemies should, at least, be enough to start cooperative bonds
in order to survive. It does not mean that they must depend on
each other. There is much to lose on both sides. That old state
rationalism should be revived instead of pride and vanity.
* Author has Phd in International Relations - São Paulo
Brazil.
44 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 9 • September 2019, Noida