The Korea Herald: “A Japanese diplomat arrived in Seoul on Wednesday for talks with his South Korean counterparts amid a prolonged row between the two countries over Tokyo’s wartime forced labor and export curbs.” The Korea Herald: “The Ministry of…
Japan Times: “Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga sent a ritual offering Saturday to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, a controversial war-linked shrine that Asian neighbors view as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism.” US News: “Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has sent an…
Japan Times: “Nothing makes for a sales hook like an anniversary. And as this year marks 75 years since the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the English books market responded with nearly a dozen histories, treatises,…
Coverage over the recent unveiling of a statue commemorating ‘comfort women’ in Berlin: DW Akademie: “A Korean citizens’ group is aiming to raise awareness of women forced to work in military brothels with a new memorial. But Japan has said…
Over the summer, there have been several developments on historical issues affecting South Korea-Japan relations. From Japanese UNESCO sites to wartime workers, here are a selection of stories providing an overview of recent changes. Chosunilbo: “Cheong Wa Dae is bristling…
“South Korean President Park Geun-Hye muted her criticism of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s war anniversary statement, mindful that she needs to improve her country’s relations with Japan.”
“South Korea and Japan held their first high-level security talks in more than five years on Tuesday, despite simmering tensions over territorial and historical disputes. Resuming the “two plus two” talks, which include the two nations’ foreign and defense officials,…
“The National Assembly adopted a resolution Tuesday, denouncing Japan’s repeated claims to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo. The resolution passed with 181 votes out of 182 in the plenary session. It was drafted and approved last week by a…
“South Korean Prime Minister Lee Wan-Koo on Thursday warned Japan it would face a “grim judgement” if it failed to address what he called the realities of history.”
“On Apr. 7, the Japanese cabinet adopted a Diplomatic Bluebook for 2015 that deletes a phrase describing South Korea as sharing fundamental values such as “democracy and basic human rights” with Japan and includes a phrase about Dokdo being Japan’s…
“South Korea on Tuesday denounced Japan’s yearly diplomatic paper as “history-regressive,” as the Japanese government repeated its territorial claims to Dokdo islets, called Takeshima in Japan. “Today, it (the Japanese government) repeated its history- regressive action by presenting to the…
“South Korea and Japan will next week hold their first high-level security talks in more than five years, Seoul said today, despite simmering tensions over territorial and other historical disputes.”
“Japan is still distorting historical facts around the territory this year, the 50th anniversary of the normalized ties between Korea and Japan. If Japan really wanted to improve the bilateral relationship, it shouldn`t have done this. Against this backdrop, the…
“Seventy percent of South Koreans want President Park Geun-hye and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to hold a one-on-one meeting, a local opinion poll showed Thursday… Among those calling for improved ties, 41 percent cited the need to resolve historical issues, followed…
“Diplomatic tensions are rising as Japan is said to have maintained in its diplomatic blue book the territorial claim over South Korea`s easternmost islets of Dokdo, which Japan calls Takeshima.”
“Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirmed that he described “comfort women,” mainly Asian females who were forced to provide sex to wartime Japanese soldiers, as victims of “human trafficking” in a recent interview with The Washington Post. The remarks provoked a backlash…
“South Korea and Japan were to hold talks on Tokyo’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II on Monday as the two historical rivals make efforts to improve their strained ties in a landmark year, Seoul’s foreign ministry…
“Japan and South Korea share values,” Merkel reportedly told Okada. “It’s better to resolve the . . . issue properly.”
“The U.S. government believed the “comfort women” issue was behind South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s August 2012 visit to islets at the heart of a territorial dispute between Japan and South Korea, a U.S. document revealed on Tuesday.”
“President Park Geun-hye of South Korea urged Japan on Sunday to have the “courage and honesty” to admit to its historical wrongdoings against Koreans and other Asians, including its enslavement of Korean women in military brothels during World War II… Ms. Park…
“Seoul on Sunday slammed the Japanese government’s dispatch of a high-level official to a local event designed to stress its claim to the Korean islets of Dokdo.”
“Toshihiro Nikai, a top executive in the ruling party, has so much political clout he was recently able to pull off something that has eluded even Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: a formal one-on-one meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye.”
“Seoul’s demand for new apology over WWII ‘comfort women’ complicates regional security ties… …Polling data show that South Koreans dislike Mr. Abe as much as they do North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. In Japan, polls show that views of South…
“Once a source of fortune for Japanese fishermen hunting sea lions and abalone, a pair of remote rocks is stopping the U.S.’ two biggest allies in Asia from getting along…”