The landslide win in the July 21 Upper House election by the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, New Komeito, will give Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a solid base to govern from, with control of both Diet chambers.

Lee Won-deog, a professor at Kookmin University who is an expert in postwar Japan-South Korea relations, was asked what effect the election results would have on bilateral relations.
Excerpts of the interview follow:


Question: How do you evaluate the victory of the LDP, led by Abe?

Lee: Japanese voters cast their ballots for the LDP because of expectations for the Abenomics package of economic policies and a desire for political stability. It does not necessarily indicate strong support for the principles long espoused by Abe of revising the Constitution and his views of historical understanding.

In that sense, there is still room for improving relations between Japan and South Korea.
At the same time, there are concerns because of the aging of "liberals" who felt good relations with Japan's neighbors were important as well as a reversal in historical understanding among some Japanese youth.

Q: What effect will the election results have on the future relationship between Japan and South Korea?

A: In South Korea, there is a tendency to consider the review of historical issues, approval of the exercise of the right to collective self-defense and constitutional revision as a "package for a rightward tilt" (by Japan). Among those three issues, the most important is the one related to historical understanding.
At the foundation of relations between Japan and South Korea after the end of World War II lies the apology by Japan for its colonial domination, which extended over 35 years.

Constitutional revision is a domestic issue for Japan and the issue of exercising the right to collective self-defense is a national security issue that also involves the United States, China and North Korea. In that sense, those two issues do not directly affect only the two nations of Japan and South Korea.

Q: Isn't that view a minority one in South Korea?

A: What is at issue is the fact that Abe appears to be pushing forward simultaneously with a review of historical understanding, approval for exercising the right to collective self-defense and constitutional revision. That forces those of us in South Korea to also consider those three issues as a set so the landslide victory by the LDP raises further concerns.

Q: Relations between Japan and South Korea have soured ever since then President Lee Myung-bak visited the Takeshima islets in August 2012. (The islets are referred to as Dokdo in South Korea.)

A: The troubled relations have become a burden for both Japan and South Korea.
In order to deal with North Korea's nuclear weapons program and the emergence of China, there is a need for cooperation between Japan and South Korea.
One possibility would be for South Korean President Park Geun-hye to transmit a message to the Japanese people calling for an improvement in bilateral ties. In that case, she should avoid an excessively nationalistic tone, but should emphasize the importance of such universal values as democracy, human rights and peace.

Q: Do you have any ideas for restoring bilateral relations to a more normal state?

A: A meeting of the leaders of the two nations should be held before the end of the year. In that meeting, Abe should reconfirm respect for the fundamental spirit contained in the Kono statement on "comfort women" (issued in August 1993 in the name of Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, which offered apologies to the comfort women who provided sex to Imperial Japanese Army personnel), the Murayama statement, which apologized for colonial domination and military aggression (issued in August 1995 by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama) and the Kan statement (issued in 2010 by Prime Minister Naoto Kan) on the centennial of Japan's annexation of the Korean Peninsula.

On top of that, the two leaders should also approve a joint statement that upgrades the partnership declaration that was approved in 1998 by South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi.

However, a meeting of the two leaders will become difficult if in August important members of the Abe Cabinet, including the prime minister, deputy prime minister, foreign minister or chief Cabinet secretary, should visit Yasukuni Shrine and destroy any atmosphere for a possible meeting.

Q: Resolving the territorial dispute over the Takeshima islets appears to be very difficult.

A: Because Japan is concentrating its efforts on the territorial disputes related to the Senkaku Islands and Northern Territories, there is a very small possibility that it will go on the offensive on the Dokdo (Takeshima) issue. South Korea should also continue with a defensive posture of maintaining the status quo and managing the islets.

The two sides should refrain from antagonizing comments and deeds and avoid turning it into a major point of contention. The visit to Dokdo by Lee only antagonized Japan and did not produce the intended results.

Q: It appears as though ties between China and South Korea have become closer as Park chose to visit China before Japan.

A: If relations between Japan and South Korea should continue to be troubled, South Korea will only move closer toward China. China's aim is to bring South Korea under its fold in order to throw the United States and Japan off balance. In that sense, South Korea tends to be adversely affected by China's strategy. That would not mean anything good for either Japan or South Korea.

Lee Won-deog was born in South Korea in 1962 and graduated from the Department of International Relations at Seoul National University. He obtained his Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Tokyo. Since February, he has been a visiting fellow at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia.

By IZUMI SAKURAI/ Asahi Shinbun Staff Writer