South Korea, North Korea, and Japan have had disputes on many issues. Although South Korea and Japan are major trading partners and there are many students, tourists, entertainers, and businesspeople traveling frequently between the two countries, Japan and the two Koreas haven't had a friendly relationship in history, to a large degree even today. Listed below are some of the issues that are still argued about.

Political Disputes

Dokdo/Takeshima

Main article: Liancourt Rocks

Small uninhabited islets between Japan and Korea, also known as the Liancourt Rocks, which are currently occupied by the South Korean navy. Called "Dokdo" in Korean and "Takeshima" in Japanese, their sovereignty has been disputed among Japan, South Korea, and North Korea.

Tsushima/Daemado

Main article: Tsushima Islands

The island of Tsushima or Daemado was disputed between Korea and Japan between 1949 to 1950. However, with the Shimane's claim of the Liancourt Rocks, the Masan council re-ignited Korea's claim of Daemado by proclaiming the Daemado day, claiming Daemado as Korean territory. However, Japan had made no official comments concerning this claim as the Korean government defused the situation in Masan by asking the council for calm and not to antagonize the current situation any further. Currently, Tsushima island is controlled by the Japanese. In the 15th century, General Lee Jong-mu conquered the Island from Masan, Korea and put it under the jurisdiction of Gyeongsang Province. According to Jeoson records, Donggukyeojiseungram, Korea never formally handed over the island to Japan.

Sea of Japan/East Sea

Main article: Dispute over the name Sea of Japan

Both South and North Korea believes that Japan illegally changed the name of the "East Sea" to the "Sea of Japan" during the time when Korea effectively lost control over its foreign policy. The governments of the two Koreas say that the name "East Sea" (or the "East Sea of Korea" in the North) should be the official name above, or at least in the same level of legitimacy of, the name "Sea of Japan".

Korean government policies

Since regaining independence from Japan after World War II, South Korea has persistently enforced anti-Japanese policies, including a blanket ban on Japanese cultural products such as songs or books which has been lifted recently. Before and during World War II, occupying Japanese forces applied policies of enforced assimilation among Koreans, causing enormous anti-Japanese feeling in Korea.

North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens

Main article: North Korean abductions of Japanese

In 2002, Kim Jong Il of North Korea stated that North Korean agents had kidnapped Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, apparently as a method of training. Five of these abducted Japanese have been allowed to return to Japan. This problem remains still unsolved, since Japan claim that more abductees remain in North Korea.

Yasukuni Shrine

Main article: Yasukuni Shrine

Yasukuni Shrine is a shrine commemorating Japanese and former colonial soldiers. It became a controversy when its official pamphlet and website began protecting, even glorifying, Japanese war atrocities. It was also critized for defending Japanese war criminals from WWII.

Japanese history textbooks

The Japanese Ministry of Education and Science controls the content of school history textbooks to a certain extent. Each publishing company's textbook must pass inspection before it is allowed to be marketed to each school board. After Tsukurukai's textbook passed the inspection in April 2001, the Korean and the Chinese governments protested strongly. South Korea demanded the revision 25 parts of the textbook. However, the Japanese government rejected their demands. Consequently, anti-Japanese feelings erupted throughout Korea and China. Some cultural exchanges have been stopped in protest by Koreans. This movement also arose resentment among many supporters of the book because they felt that the Korea and China had interfered in domestic affairs within Japan. In the end, Tsukurukai's textbook was adopted by a minuscule 0.039% of the schools. See: Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform

South Korean history textbooks

In South Korea, only one history textbook, which is published by the Korean Government is used in schools. Some scholars claim that the history textbook is not objectively written and uses biased information to criticize the Japanese occupation. In response, the Korean government asserts that the information is a clear description of the history of that occupational period and is modest in comparison with the inappropriate language used in Chinese textbooks regarding the Sino-Japanese War of 1937.

Comfort Women

Main article: Comfort women

South Korean, North Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, Dutch, Indonesian, Thai and Chinese governments claim that Japan had forced the women of their countries to work in the comfort women system for Japanese soldiers during World War II. While the Japanese government has worked hard during the last six decades to deny any role it might have played during the Pacific War to effectively kidnap and organize the women affected, documents unveiled in the 1980's and 90's state that the central government did indeed conduct mass abductions and abuse of colonial women during the war.

Many former comfort women from Korea state they were forced/kidnapped, and have lodged claims for reparations in court, but Japan does not acknowledge their claims, repeating the fact that its official position is that the issue of wartime reparations was settled by the 1965 Agreement Between Japan and the Republic of Korea Concerning the Settlement of Problems in Regard to Property and Claims and Economic Cooperation .

Historical/Social Disputes

Origin of Cultures

While most mainstream anthropologists and historians would probably readily acknowledge that the Japanese and Korean peoples share closely-linked ethnic, cultural and anthropological histories, a point of contention between nationalist scholars in Japan and Korea rests on which culture came first, and can thus be considered the forebearer of the other. In brief, the Korean assertion is that through a long history of contact, several important Korean innovations in culture and technology were transferred to Japan, and that a Baekjae expedition to Japan established the line of Yamato emperors, who eventually came to rule over all of Japan [1]. Currently, the gold standard belief by most scholars is based on the book "Paekchae of Korea the origin of Yamato Japan." The Japanese counterclaim that the proto-Korean state of Gaya was, in fact, a Japanese colony before it was assimilated into the Shilla kingdom, which eventually came to rule all of Korea [2]. Several linguistic theories also make claims based upon the similarities between the languages of the respective cultures. While many of the more radical theories on these issues have been viewed by the majority with a great deal of skepticism as being ideology rather than science, the issue is far from being difinitively resolved.

Japanese Annexation of Korea

In the 19th century, after winning the first Sino-Japanese war, Japan eventually annexed Korea. How each country describes this part of history causes much of the dispute between these two countries. Some Japanese rightists tend to under-emphasise the Japanese oppression of Koreans and over-emphasise the role Japanese rule had in the industrialisation and modernisation of Korea. In Korea, the opposite is the case. Some comments by senior Japanese politicians in regard to Japan's war time atrocities often create a fury in Korea as well as China. Korean generally hold highly critical view of Japanese historiography and the South Korean government recently demanded the reinspection of all Japanese school textbooks. In turn there are some Japanese trying to expose some perceived distortion of history by Korea. This includes "perceived" exaggeration of Japanese atrocities and oppression.

See also

• Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty

Zainichi-Koreans

Zainichi (Resident Japan) is a euphemism for Koreans residing in Japan, most of them second- or third-generation Koreans who still hold either North or South Korean passports. Some of them claim that they were kidnapped to Japan to work in Japan during the WWII. Then their was a large influx during Korean War where many Korean came to Japan as refugees. Japanese Korean communities are split between affiliation to North or South Korea. The majority of Koreans living in Japan use Japanese names in public because discrimination is prevalent. They face much discrimination in terms of marriage or employment. This problem is especially acute with North Koreans as Japan does not hold formal diplomatic ties with North Korea. Part of the problem of assimilation of second or third generation Koreans is that the Japanese government bases nationality on lineage and not on the fact that these people have never set foot in Korea. In addition until recently Japan required adoption of Japanese name as part of naturalisation. Japanese discrimination against Koreans is widely reported in Korea.

Corea/Korea

Main article: Names of Korea

Some South Koreans claim that Japanese intentionally promoted the spelling of Korea instead of Corea during the colonial era, the reason being that K comes after J in the Latin alphabet. In 1594, the map created by Petrus Plancius of the Netherlands is known to be the oldest existing map in Europe that made reference to Korea with the marking Corea. However, a small number of maps were written with K in the word-initial position. It would be difficult to assess what really happened.

The opinion that it is established that Russia of the imperialism age began to use "Corea" for "Korea" with the Russian notation, and it is used even now is leading.

Related articles

• Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea
• List of war apology statements issued by Japan