There have been a number of significant disputes between various Koreanic and Japonic states. The two regions have a long history of relations as immediate neighbors that has been marked with conflict. One of the most significant issues is the Japanese colonization of Korea that began with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 and ended with the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II.
Although South Korea was established in 1948, Japan–South Korea relations only officially began in 1965 with the signing of the Basic Treaty that normalized their relations. Today, Japan and South Korea are major trading partners, and many students, tourists, entertainers, and business people travel between the two countries. Despite strong economic cooperation between the two countries, ongoing territorial and historical issues exist between the two nations.
Relations between Japan and North Korea are not yet normalized, and there are ongoing historical, geopolitical and nuclear issues between the two nations.
Background
With the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, Japan decided to expand their initial settlements and acquired an enclave in Busan. In the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95, Japan defeated the Qing dynasty, and had released Korea from the tributary system of Qing China by concluding the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which compelled the Qing to acknowledge Yi Dynasty Korea as an independent country. Japan encouraged the modernization of Korea. However, the ruling Min clan, including the Queen Min took precautions against Japan due to its increasing dominance and influence within the Korean peninsula.Tatiana M. Simbirtseva, "Queen Min of Korea: Coming to Power". Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society–Korea Branch 71 (1996): 41–54. online In 1895, Queen Min was assassinated by Japan after seeking to promote Russian influence and oppose reform.Bruce Cumings, Korea's Place in the Sun (1997) p 123.
Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty
In 1897, Joseon was renamed to the Korean Empire (1897–1910), affirming its independence, but greatly gravitated closer to Russia, with the King ruling from the Russian legation, and then using Russian guards upon return to his palace. Japan declared war on Russia to drive out Russian influence, and ended the war by imposing the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905. Korea became a protectorate of Japan, a precursor to its annexation. Itō Hirobumi, who was the first prime minister of Japan and one of the elder statesmen, was Resident-General of Korea and was opposed to the annexation of Korea. However, the power balance in domestic Japan grew in favor of the annexation, in part because of Itō's assassination in 1909 by An Jung-Geun. On August 22, 1910, Japan had formally annexed Korea through the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty.
In 1910, Japan annexed Korea. The legality of the annexation and the subsequent 35-years of occupation of the Korean Peninsula by Japan are controversial. Both have been criticized as illegal based on the fact that the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905 was signed under duress, as well as its never having been ratified by Gojong of Korea. Some Japanese scholars have challenged this view of the treaty as invalid.
Post-war Korea Kim Il Sung had led a Korean independence movement, which was active in the border areas between China and Russia, particularly in areas with considerable ethnic Korean populations. Kim founded North Korea, and his descendants have still not signed a peace treaty with Japan. The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, led by (later) South Korea's first president Syngman Rhee, had moved from Shanghai to Chongqing. Lee lobbied the United States and was recognized by the South Korean administrator by Douglas MacArthur. Japanese control of Korea ended on September 9, 1945, when the Governor-General of Korea signed the instrument of surrender document to United States in Seoul.
Normalization of bilateral relations and compensation
Twenty years after World War II, South Korea and Japan re-established diplomatic relations with the 1965 signing of the Treaty on Basic Relations. In 2005, South Korea disclosed diplomatic documents that detailed the proceedings of the treaty. Kept secret in South Korea for 40 years, the documents revealed that Japan provided 500 million dollars in soft loans and 300 million in grants to South Korea as compensation for the reign of Japan. South Korea agreed to demand no more compensation after the treaty, either at a government-to-government level or an individual-to-government level.The Washington Times. S. Korea discloses sensitive documents It was also revealed that the South Korean government assumed the responsibility for compensating individuals on a lump sum basisThe Chosun Ilbo. Compensation for Colonial Victims Is Not Just a Legal Problem while rejecting Japan's proposal for direct compensation.The Chosun Ilbo. 「韓国政府、韓日会談で個別請求権放棄」
Historical issues following normalization
Individual compensation With the Basic Treaty signed between countries, Japan had compensated the Korean government for both its peacetime occupation and wartime activities. The South Korean government used most of the loans for economic development and paid 300,000 won per death, with only a total of 2,570 million won to the relatives of 8,552 victims who died in forced labor.The Chosun Ilbo. Seoul Demanded $364 Million for Japan's Victims Korean victims had filed a compensation lawsuit against the South Korean government as of 2005. Subsequent lawsuits in South Korea have had contradictory results as to whether Japan and Japanese companies are still liable for individual compensation from their action during the occupation. Japan claims that all of its and Japanese companies responsibilities have been met by the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations. Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery, a mock trial organised by and supported by Japanese NGO Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery, issued a ruling that "states cannot agree by treaty to waive the liability of another state for crimes against humanity".Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery. The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal
Diplomatic relations over compensation flared up again following a 2018 ruling by the Supreme Court of Korea which ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to pay compensation to the families of 28 Koreans who were forced laborers. Japan had viewed the Treaty as having been the final instrument of compensation, while the South Korean government backed the ruling of its highest court. The government of Moon Jae-in viewed the Treaty as not having abrogated the rights of individuals to seek compensation.
In July 2019, Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe accused the government of South Korea of not having an "appropriate response to its breach" of the treaty. In response, Blue House spokeswoman Ko Min-jung advised that the two countries' governments "not [to] cross the line and make [the] utmost efforts for future cooperation between the two countries and their people." Moon Jae-In had further called for "technological innovation" so that South Korea relied less on Japan, in the context of ongoing trade wars and South Korean reliance on Japanese technological imports. This issue had significantly impacted South Korea–Japan military cooperation and economic trade.
Formal apologies for colonization
South Korea Although diplomatic relations were established by treaty in 1965, South Korea continues to request an apology and compensation for Korea under Japanese rule. The Japanese government has apologized officially many times. In 2012, The South Korean government asked that Emperor Akihito should apologize for Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Some Japanese Prime Ministers have issued apologies, including Prime Minister Obuchi in the Japan–South Korea Joint Declaration of 1998, but many have not. Survey evidence suggests that Japanese citizens with conservative ideologies and hierarchical group dispositions tend to resist issuing apologies. Even in education, there is only a footnote about comfort women in Japanese textbooks. In one example in 2005, the Koizumi Cabinet did not participate, but 47 Diet members visited Yasukuni shrine for a memorial service at exactly the same time Prime Minister Koizumi was issuing the apology. This was portrayed by South Korean Media as a contradiction and has caused many South Koreans to distrust and discard Japanese statements of apology.
North Korea Prime Minister Junichirō Koizumi, in the Japan-DPRK Pyongyang Declaration of 2002, said: "I once again express my feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology, and also express the feelings of mourning for all victims, both at home and abroad, in the war."
Return of Korean remains In the 1970s, requests were made for Japan to return the remains of around 38,000 Korean people (specifically their noses) from the nose tomb Mimizuka in Kyoto. These noses were cut off the faces of people during the Japanese invasions of Korea from 1592 to 1598. The noses have still not been returned to Korea, although some Koreans wish to keep them there as a monument to Japan's brutal treatment of Koreans during the invasion.
During the Japanese occupation of Korea (particularly during World War II), Japan mobilized 700,000 laborers from Korea to sustain industrial production, mainly in mining. Some of them eventually returned to Korea after the war, with some dying in Japan during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, or the other Allied bombings of Japan. The high death toll may also have had other causes in the harsh conditions of the war. Corporations, such as Mitsubishi, Mitsui and others, stated that the culpability should fall on the government and not on private companies. The government distributed funds to companies for the purposes of worker repatriation. Japanese companies paid out sums at the end of the war to Chinese work leaders intended for Chinese labourers to return home to China, but the money went missing after distribution to the Chinese workers. Later, the People's Republic of China and South Korea requested help in finding the dead bodies of kidnapped Chinese and Korean laborers for proper burial. The situation prevented China and South Korea from appropriately coordinating their efforts, and they have only identified a few hundred bodies. In addition, Korean workers began demanding their unpaid wages immediately after Japan's surrender and continue to do so today. The issue remains salient in South Korea.
Return of Korean cultural artifacts The Japanese rule of Korea also resulted in the relocation of tens of thousands of cultural artifacts to Japan. The issue over where these articles should be located began during the U.S. occupation of Japan. In 1965, as part of the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea, Japan returned roughly 1,400 artifacts to Korea, and considered the diplomatic matter to have been resolved.Japan, Seoul sign deal on artifact returns Nov 14, 2010 Korean artifacts are retained in the Tokyo National Museum and in the hands of many private collectors.
In 1994, hundreds of books of the Heart Sutra which were donated by the Goryeo Dynasty to Japan in 1486 were stolen from a temple. The following year, three damaged books out of these hundreds were discovered in South Korea and registered as National Treasure no. 284.菅野朋子 【特別リポート】消えた「重要文化財を追え！」壱岐・安国寺の寺宝は「韓国の国宝」になっていた！（週刊新潮 2005年10月13日号） In 2002, thieves stole another medieval gift and a Japanese biography of Prince Shōtoku, and donated them to a temple in Korea.