Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Introduction: Korea and the Great Powers in a Changing World
- Chapter 2 China and the Two Koreas
- Chapter 3 Russia and the Two Koreas
- Chapter 4 Japan and the Two Koreas
- Chapter 5 The United States and the Two Koreas
- Chapter 6 The Future of the Two Koreas
- References
- Index
Chapter 4 - Japan and the Two Koreas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 June 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Introduction: Korea and the Great Powers in a Changing World
- Chapter 2 China and the Two Koreas
- Chapter 3 Russia and the Two Koreas
- Chapter 4 Japan and the Two Koreas
- Chapter 5 The United States and the Two Koreas
- Chapter 6 The Future of the Two Koreas
- References
- Index
Summary
The Japan Factor
A phrase that has been used frequently to describe the character of Japan–Korea relations over the years is “so near, yet so far.” Indeed, distance seems to make Japan's political heart grow fonder. Japan and Korea are so close geographically (in the case of South Korea), ideologically, and developmentally, yet they are so far apart in myriad other ways. Of the Big Four, Japan is beyond compare on Northeast Asian identity politics because Tokyo serves as a clear and present reminder of (wounded) national identity for Korea and China, and as a lightening rod for domestic politics in Seoul, Pyongyang, and Beijing. Of the Big Four, Japan has been the most significant negative other in the making of modern Korean national identity and nationalism.
As one of a few true nation-states – the state's jurisdiction coincides perfectly with its own nation (homogenous people) – Japan should have escaped the wrenching national identity difficulties that have afflicted so many states old and new. Yet, by a more synthetic notion of national identity, the state defines and differentiates itself not only essentially by what it is – what the Japanese refer to as kokutai (national essence) – but also behaviorally by what it does in international relations.
Some of the manifest symbolic and behavioral anomalies in Japanese foreign policy cannot be fully explained by realist and liberal theories.
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- Information
- The Two Koreas and the Great Powers , pp. 157 - 224Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006