Tag: Japan

You have to love the irony of President Moon asking for “sincere consultations” with Japan when his administration withdrew from the prior comfort women agreement and have been using the courts to further attack Japan for domestic political purposes:

President Moon Jae-in called on Japan on Monday to withdraw its recent export control against South Korean firms, describing it as an attempt to limit trade for a political purpose.

Breaking his strategic reticence on the sensitive issue, Moon said his administration will first make “calm” efforts to resolve it diplomatically.

In case of “actual damages” to South Korean companies, however, the government will be left with no other choice but to take “necessary” measures, he stressed, presiding over a meeting with senior Cheong Wa Dae officials.

He added he hopes to avoid such a vicious cycle of tit for tat.

“(I) call on the Japanese side to retract the measure and call for sincere consultations between the two countries,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but I don’t see the Abe administration bending on this until the Moon administration agrees to uphold the 1965 treaty that normalized relations between the two countries.

This helps to send a message to China about the rising will of the Japanese government to project naval power:

One of Japan’s largest warships, the helicopter carrier Izumo, offers a glimpse of where its military is headed: For the first time, troops from a newly formed amphibious brigade of the Self-Defense Forces participated in an extended naval deployment.

The Izumo left Subic, a former U.S. naval base in the Philippines, at the end of a two-month deployment in the Indo-Pacific region at a time of prolonged tensions involving China’s sweeping territorial claims in and around the South China Sea. The carrier, along with the destroyers Murasame and Akebono, just finished a series of drills with the United States and other countries.

Japan’s ability to project military power beyond its borders is severely constrained by the commitment to pacifism and rejection of use of military force in conflict enshrined in its post-World War II Constitution, though in 2015 it was reinterpreted to allow the use of force in defending itself and its allies.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made amending the Constitution to allow the military greater leeway one of his lifetime goals. President Donald Trump has sought to help that cause, calling repeatedly for Japan to do more to defend itself under its alliance with the U.S.

In May, Japan conducted its first quadrilateral exercise with France, the U.S. and Australia in the Bay of Bengal. France deployed its flagship nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the FS Charles de Gaulle, while the United States sent a missile destroyer, the William P. Lawrence. Other drills have included Canada, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines.

Japan is preparing to reconfigure the Izumo to accommodate U.S. stealth fighters, including F-35Bs, after announcing it would purchase 42 of its own. The aircraft are designed to operate with short takeoffs and vertical landings, such as on carriers.

Japan Times

You can read more at the link, but the Japanese carriers are going to be able to project quite a bit more power once they are equipped with the F-35B’s.

I don’t see the Japanese backing down on their economic retaliation until the ROK government resolves the forced labor court ruling issue:

“Japan may suffer from the government’s strategy in the long term, but by then, the damage on our companies will be even greater,” Kang said.

Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong Global University, speculated Korea will “never beat Japan in the economic tit-for-tat.”

“It’s apparent Japan has planned its retaliatory measures carefully and meticulously, whereas Korea has come up with a counterstrategy hastily and hurriedly,” Park said. “I bet Japan has more cards to play as the economic showdown intensifies. I’m afraid that’s not the case for Korea.”

Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University, said, “Our countermeasures are not very practical.”

The analysts suggested going “back to the beginning” and resolving the dispute diplomatically.

“Everything started from the diplomatic dispute over Japan’s wartime past. Korea should resume talks with Japan and concentrate on forced labor,” Park said.

As an option, he cited the need for President Moon to send a special envoy, such as National Security Office chief Chung Eui-yong, to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Shin Yul voiced a similar view.

“I’m not sure whether sending a special envoy is a good idea, but I’m certain mobilizing all possible diplomatic means is necessary at this point,” he said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Moon administration may have woken a sleeping giant. If the economic retaliation by Japan is ultimately effective, this could be something the Japanese government continues to turn to every time the ROK government pushes an anti-Japanese issue for domestic political purposes.

I think President Trump is more interested in modifying the treaty than ending it:

 The Japanese government has dismissed a U.S. media report saying that President Donald Trump spoke of ending the two nations’ longstanding postwar defense pact.

Bloomberg News, citing anonymous sources, reported Monday that Trump had privately mused about withdrawing from the “one-sided” security treaty with the United States’ longtime ally.

The president thinks the accord is unfair because it promises U.S. aid if Japan is attacked but doesn’t oblige Japan to come to America’s defense, the Bloomberg report said.

However, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, told reporters at a news conference in Tokyo Tuesday that “there is no such talk as mentioned in the report.” The Japanese government has dismissed a U.S. media report saying that President Donald Trump spoke of ending the two nations’ longstanding postwar defense pact.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

It appears that the Abe administration has lost patience with the Moon administration over the forced labor ruling and decided to do what the Chinese did and economically retaliate against South Korea:

 South Korea’s trade minister said Monday the government plans to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over Japan’s decision to tighten the rules for exports of semiconductor and display materials to Seoul, amid a simmering diplomatic row over wartime force labor. 

“South Korea has been making efforts to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with Japan,” Industry Minister Sung Yun-mo told reporters, describing the Japanese measure as an “economic retaliation” against South Korea’s Supreme Court ruling on compensation for wartime forced labor.

Sung added the action contradicts not only WTO rules but also global efforts to seek a free, fair and predictable free-trade environment as proposed at the Group of 20 summit held in Japan last week.

“(The government) will continue to communicate closely with local firms to minimize the impact, and will take this event as an opportunity to beef up the competitiveness of the country’s parts, materials, and equipment (sectors),” Sung said, adding that Seoul will take all necessary measures including diversifying import sources.

Earlier in the day, the Japanese government said it will strengthen regulations on the export to South Korea of high-tech chemicals used in semiconductor and smartphone production starting Thursday, apparently in response to South Korea’s ruling on compensation for wartime forced labor.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but for those that have not been following this issue, the Japanese side does not dispute the forced labor claim, what they dispute is that they already paid compensation with the 1965 treaty. Instead of handing out money for individual compensation, the ROK government used the money to develop the economy instead.

As I have always said about this issue is the ROK government going to support compensation claims against China for their role in the destruction of South Korea during the Korean War that killed tens of thousands of South Koreans?

Speaking of China they have just launched their latest economic retaliation against South Korea for hosting the THAAD battery:

China removed ~120 billboard/bus station ads of #SouthKorean companies #Samsung, #Hyundai & #Kia overnight on 6/29 with no compensation nor notice. It recruited ~400 people using cranes & solder equipment. China’s pressure tactic.https://t.co/1V7PrA1Kft

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) July 1, 2019

Despite all the economic retaliation against South Korea from China over the THAAD dispute, the Moon administration has not lodged complaints to the WTO. This is just the latest example of hypocrisy between how the ROK government responds to the Japanese government compared to China.

I am surprised that Prime Minister Abe thought a deal over the Kuril Islands would ever be possible with Russia:

Kimio Waki remembers the day in 1945 when Soviet soldiers burst into his home, “machine guns in their hands, and with their shoes on.” He was just 4 years old. “They ransacked the house,” he said. “I’m left with my memory of fear.”

Waki and his family were among of 17,000 Japanese living on the southernmost Kurile islands – known in Russia as the Kurils – when Soviet troops invaded after Japan had announced its surrender in World War II. Over the next four years, all of them either fled or were forcibly evicted.

More than seven decades later, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has embarked on a quixotic dream to persuade Moscow to return at least some of the islands, with President Vladimir Putin first dangling – then seemingly withdrawing – the prospect of a deal.

There had been hopes the two leaders might have signed a framework agreement on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit, which begins June 28 in Osaka. But that dream has died, experts say.

“A deal to settle the territorial dispute – that’s really not on the table anymore,” said James Brown, an associate professor at Temple University’s campus in Japan.

Instead, Russia is now proposing to deepen economic cooperation by introducing visa-free travel for residents of the Russian island of Sakhalin and Japan’s island of Hokkaido, which lie west of the disputed smaller islands.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but Putin pulled the old okey-doke on Japan by appearing to be open to something Abe really wanted to pursue, but then twist it to try and get something else.

Putin is never going to willingly give back the Kuril Islands because it ensures that the Sea of Okhotsk remains a giant Russian lake by denying undetected submarine access. It also allows easy entry and exit for the Russian Pacific fleet anchored at Vladivostok.

The findings from this recent poll are especially troubling when you consider that last year a different poll found that 78% of South Koreans said they trusted Kim Jong-un. It would be interesting though if someone polled these two questions together to the Korean public. However, such polling numbers may seem to make no sense that Koreans would trust the leader of country committed to their destruction over a country that has no hostile intentions towards them, but for anyone that has followed Korea and Japan issues it makes perfect sense:

Three-quarters of Japanese do not trust their South Korean neighbours – and the feeling is mutual, a study has found.

A record 74 per cent of Japanese were now distrustful of South Koreans, found the study by the Yomiuri Shimbunin Japan

 and the Hankook Ilbo in Korea. That was more than at any time since the study was first conducted in 1996 and well above last year’s figure of 60 per cent. Meanwhile, 75 per cent of South Koreans

 had no trust in the Japanese, down from 79 per cent last year.

Those personal sentiments appeared to mirror a strained diplomatic relationship between the two countries. Some 83 per cent of Japanese respondents thought bilateral relations were bad, up from 63 per cent last year, while 82 per cent of Koreans thought the same, up from 69 per cent last year.

South China Morning Post

You can read much more at the link, but the reasons for the distrust are the usual ones, the Japanese did not apologize enough for World War II and the Japanese say they are tired of apologizing over and over again. Then there is always the Dokdo craziness.

As I have long said there is no reason for the South Korean political left to give up their anti-Japanese stance. It is even hard for the South Korean right to do so, though the prior President Park Geun-hye tried and the current government scrapped the deal she made with Japan. The issue is too great of punching bag for politicians to turn to when they need to deflect attention from domestic issues. How many times have we seen a Korean politician under domestic pressure show up on Dokdo?

This is all why I have long believed that if Japanese Prime Minister Abe was really clever he should apologize for war time sexual slavery once again, but this time in a large public speech to draw maximum media attention. During this speech then announce that Japan to atone for its past sins would become a champion of women’s rights beginning with the plight of modern day sexual slavery of North Korean women in China that both the South Korean and Chinese governments choose to ignore.

North Korean women trafficked in the sex industry in China are the modern day comfort women that the Chinese and South Koreans do nothing to stop.  Japan becoming an advocate for these women would expose the current hypocrisy of their critics on this issue.

Such a stance would make it difficult for the political demagogues in South Korean to bring up more demands for apologies when it would reflect negatively on their own current human rights failures. It would no doubt be a bold measure, but I see no other way of ending the current impasse.

Kim Won-bong is basically the Benedict Arnold of South Korea. I think it is okay to record his military contributions as part of the historical record, but his treason should be part of the historical record as well instead of just receiving praise for his anti-Japanese activities:

The Ministry of National Defense said Monday it was reviewing a request from its research arm to include details of Kim Won-bong’s fight for Korea’s independence in the historical records of the Korean military on its official website.

Kim was the leader of a secret society fighting for independence. He and his associates became undercover operatives for the Korean provisional government in China from the late 1930s to early 1940s. But Kim later went to North Korea, where he earned commendations from Pyongyang for his efforts in the Korean War.

“The ministry understands there is a need to record the late Kim Won-bong’s activities if they turn out to be based on historical facts,” ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo told reporters in a briefing at the ministry’s headquarters in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. 

A request was made last year by the Institute for Military History for the current history on the ministry website to be revised to include some facts about Kim’s activities including his creation of the anti-Japanese Korean Volunteer Corps in 1938 in Wuhan, China. Kim was later appointed deputy commander of the Korean Liberation Army in 1942 and served until 1945. 

Currently, the ministry’s records only state certain facts such as those on the late independence activist Ahn Jung-geun and his assassination of then-Japanese Resident-General Hirobumi Ito in 1909, or the foundation of the provisional government in 1919, in the history before the 1945 liberation of Korea from colonial rule.

The historical assessment on Kim, however, remains controversial as he became a North Korean military commander in 1948 and fought against South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War. He was said to have helped strengthen Kim Il-sung’s regime in North Korea before being purged in 1958.

Controversy surrounding Kim has recently resurfaced following President Moon Jae-in’s June 6 Memorial Day speech at Seoul National Cemetery, where he gave credit to him for his activities. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Although he has lived in Japan for 25 years, Pico Iyer doesn’t choose to learn more than a smattering of Japanese because he says needs mystery and “a sense of open space in life, something to offset the sense of the familiar.” https://t.co/0JpPZ4e03m

— New York Times Books (@nytimesbooks) April 23, 2019