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Japan The Koreas
Japan's policies toward the two Koreas reflects the
importance
this area had for Asian stability, which is seen as
essential to
Japanese peace and prosperity. Japan is one of four major
powers
(along with the United States, Russia, and China) that
have
important security interests on the Korean Peninsula.
However,
Japan's involvement in political and security issues on
the Korean
Peninsula is more limited than that of the other three
powers.
Japan's relations with North Korea and South Korea has a
legacy of
bitterness stemming from harsh Japanese colonial rule over
Korea
from 1910 to 1945. Polls during the postwar period in
Japan and
South Korea showed that the people of each nation had a
profound
dislike of the other country and people.
Article 9 of Japan's constitution is interpreted to bar
Japan
from entering into security relations with countries other
than the
United States. Consequently, Japan had no substantive
defense
relationship with South Korea, and military contacts were
infrequent. The Japanese government supported noncommunist
South
Korea in other ways. It backed United States contingency
plans to
dispatch United States armed forces in Japan to South
Korea in case
of a North Korean attack on South Korea. It also acted as
an
intermediary between South Korea and China. It pressed the
Chinese
government to open and expand relations with South Korea
in the
1980s.
Japan's trade with South Korea was US$29.1 billion in
1991,
with a surplus of nearly US$5.8 billion on the Japanese
side.
Japanese direct private investment in South Korea totaled
US$4.4
billion in 1990. Japanese and South Korean firms often had
interdependent relations, which gave Japan advantages in
South
Korea's growing market. Many South Korean products were
based on
Japanese design and technology. A surge in imports of
South Korean
products into Japan in 1990 was partly the result of
production by
Japanese investors in South Korea.
Japan-North Korea relations remained antagonistic in
the late
1980s. The two governments did not maintain diplomatic
relations
and had no substantive contacts. The opposition Japan
Socialist
Party, however, had cordial relations with the North
Korean regime.
Issues in Japan-North Korea relations that produced
tensions
included North Korean media attacks on Japan, Japan's
imposition of
economic sanctions on North Korea for terrorist acts
against South
Korea in the 1980s, and unpaid North Korean debts to
Japanese
enterprises of about US$50 million. Japan allowed trade
with North
Korea through unofficial channels. This unofficial trade
reportedly
came to more than US$200 million annually in the 1980s.
In the early 1990s, Japan continued to conduct lengthy
negotiations with North Korea aimed at establishing
diplomatic
relations with P'yongyang while maintaining its relations
with
Seoul. In January 1991, Japan began normalization talks
with
P'yongyang with a formal apology for its 1910-45 colonial
rule of
the Korean Peninsula. The negotiations were aided by
Tokyo's
support of a proposal for simultaneous entry to the UN by
North
Korea and the Republic of Korea (South Korea); the issues
of
international inspection of North Korean nuclear
facilities and the
nature and amount of Japanese economic assistance,
however, proved
more difficult to negotiate.
Data as of January 1994
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