Category: Japan

It seems like there is some bitterness in Japan over the backtracking in the ROK over the recent comfort women deal:

In this year’s policy speech, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described South Korea as Japan’s “most important neighbor that shares our strategic interests.” Just like last year, though, he omitted “fundamental values” from this sentence.“At the end of last year, Japan and South Korea brought to an end a long-standing issue with our final and irreversible settlement on the issue of the comfort women,” Abe said during the speech, which he delivered to a joint session of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, on Jan. 22. “Since South Korea is our most important neighbor that shares our strategic interests, we will build a cooperative relationship for a new era in order to ensure peace and stability in East Asia.”  […………]

Abe’s decision to describe South Korea as a country that only shares “strategic interests” and not “fundamental values” appears to reflect unpleasant feelings that still remain even after the Dec. 28 settlement of the comfort women issue. In other words, Abe views South Korea not as a friend that shares values but as just a business partner that he must work with in regard to the issues of China’s rise and North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read the rest at the link.

Here is another sign of increased ROK and Japanese military cooperation which will hopefully continue to build trust between the two nations.  For those that don’t know DSP satellites have infrared sensors that can detect heat from missile launches or nuclear detonations:

South Korea plans to set up a new military network to share text and imagery information on North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missiles with the United States and Japan this year, the Defense Ministry said Friday.

The military plans to install a Link16 data link, connecting its interface control cell with that of the United States Forces Korea, both in Osan, south of Seoul, showed the ministry’s 2016 policy plan reported to President Park Geun-hye earlier in the day.

The military tactical data exchange network will allow the allies to share text and imagery intelligence on North Korea’s nuclear and missile activities nearly on a real-time basis.

With the data link, South Korea will be able to gain access to U.S. information collected from its Defense Support Program reconnaissance satellite over the Korean Peninsula.

The move practically means South Korea will have the real-time military data link also with Japan, given the USFK’s Link16 connection with the Japanese military.

“Despite the U.S.-Japan linkage, information sharing will not take place without the agreement from each side and, even if it takes place, it will be confined to subjects on North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles,” a defense official said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This would be devestating to ROK-Japan relations if South Korea backs out of this deal.  It seems the Park administration should have expected to the political opposition to come out against the deal and be willing to take the political flak before signing it:

Hundreds of progressive civic groups launched an umbrella organization on Thursday to demand Seoul and Tokyo invalidate the landmark deal over Japan’s sexual enslavement of Korean women.

The umbrella organization, which encompasses 383 civic, religious, lawyers’ and students’ groups as well as 300 individuals, announced its plan to campaign against the deal at home and abroad in a press conference held in central Seoul.

“We gathered here to invalidate the agreement, demand renegotiations with Japan and gather public support,” Kim Geum-ok, a representative for the group, said in the press briefing. “We will be at the forefront of the fight to prevent recurrence of inhumane crimes like sex slavery and win legal compensation and formal apology from Japan.”  [Korea Herald]

You can read much more at the link.

You would think this is something that the Japanese government would try and do on the down low sometime in the future because trying to move this statue now would be political suicide for the ROK government:

Amid an ongoing debate about relocating the statue of a young girl that symbolizes the comfort women – women forced to serve as sex slaves for the Imperial Japanese Army – from in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, there are indications that the South Korean government is shifting to a stricter legal stance on the issue.This appears to be motivated by concerns about criticism from the South Korean public, which has been increasing since the governments of South Korea and Japan reached an agreement about the comfort women on Dec. 28, as well as by a string of remarks by Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida that treat the removal of the statue as an established fact.

This is likely to provoke further conflict between the governments of South Korea and Japan.“Let me make this clear: The statue of the young girl was set up by private citizens, and there is nothing that the government can do about it,” South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Cho June-hyuk told domestic reporters and foreign correspondents at the regular press briefing on the afternoon of Jan. 5.  [Hankyoreh]

You can read the rest at the link.

Japan's plan to fight the Chinese navy involves a lot of missiles. https://t.co/PX5rjdA2KR @GrecianFormula pic.twitter.com/7u8eGauDD5

— National Interest (@TheNatlInterest) January 1, 2016

A statue of a young girl, symbolizing the victims of Japan’s sexual enslavement, is seen in this photo taken on Dec. 28, 2015. The statue, set up in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, has become an issue in the agreement announced on the day by South Korea and Japan to end their confrontation over “comfort women.” Japan is pressing for it to be relocated elsewhere, and South Korea said it will take into account Japan’s concerns and try to solve the situation in an appropriate manner. (Yonhap)

This should be considered unsurprising that the US back the ROK-Japan comfort women deal, but I have yet to see what China’s official response is yet.  It would think it would not be in their interest to reach a deal with Japan because of the domestic propaganda it provides:

Civil society support for the Korea-Japan agreement on resolving the issue of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery will be crucial to the deal’s success, the State Department said Tuesday.

“Everyone will make their own judgments about this agreement. But I do hope, we do hope, as the United States, that others, including here in the U.S., will support this agreement and its full implementation as we do,” State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said at a regular briefing.

“We believe it’s an important gesture that will promote healing and reconciliation and the support of civil society for this settlement will be crucial to its success in the end,” he said.

On Monday, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, reached the agreement that centers on Japan’s admission of responsibility for the wartime crime and plans to pay reparations to the victims. [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Dr. Victor Cha (@vcgiants) outlines the key takeaways of this week's ROK-Japan Comfort Women agreement: https://t.co/sWKgmRojdl

— Andrew NK (@northkoreafront) December 28, 2015

Japan considering 'comfort women' fund after decades-long dispute with South Korea https://t.co/aE3YDtPvDU pic.twitter.com/RLUgU2OEAW

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) December 26, 2015

For some people, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could apologize and commit seppuku on top of Mt. Namsan and they still would not be happy.  It seems to me the outline of this deal to resolve the comfort women issues seems pretty fair:

The landmark agreement between South Korea and Japan to end their dispute over Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women has already prompted questions about whether it really is the end.

The two countries’ top diplomats announced the terms of the deal in a press conference Monday, wrapping up 12 rounds of bilateral working-level talks that began in April 2014.

Key features of the agreement included a personal apology from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his country’s wartime crime, the Japanese government’s admission of responsibility for it and a 1 billion yen contribution to a support fund for victims to be set up by the South Korean government.

While the deal satisfied some of Seoul’s key demands, critics and some victims immediately protested the lack of “legal responsibility” on the part of Japan.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said the Japanese government “feels acutely responsible” for the damage it caused to the honor and dignity of many women, with the involvement of the Japanese military during World War II. He did not state whether it is “moral” or “legal” responsibility.  [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link.