JAPAN/SOUTH KOREA: Comfort women ruling drives new wedge in relationship

The Japanese government swiftly rejected an 8 January ruling by the Seoul Central District Court that it must pay compensation to a group of surviving wartime sexual slaves known as “comfort women,” citing sovereign immunity and the terms of the 1965 basic treaty between Japan and South Korea. The ruling adds another source of tension at a time when the two governments remain deeply at odds due to a separate dispute regarding compensation for Korean forced laborers. Domestic politics in both countries will make it difficult for either government to offer meaningful concessions in the near term. Relations between Japan and South Korea, already strained due to a dispute over compensation for Korean labor conscripts, suffered another blow on Friday, 8 January when the Seoul Central District Court ruled that Tokyo must pay KRW 100mn (USD 91,131) each to 12 of the surviving wartime sexual slaves known as “comfort women.” While the practical implications of the ruling are limited in the immediate term, the ruling illustrates how competing visions of the relationship has led to a breakdown in trust. This ruling therefore highlights the growing rift between the two Asian democracies, which could confound efforts by the two governments as well as the incoming US administration to repair it. Friday’s ruling has been several years in the making, having initially been filed in late 2016. The Japanese government, citing sovereign immunity, refused to participate in the process. Tokyo also reiterated its position, which it has also stressed in talks over forced labor compensation, that all financial claims were settled in the 1965 treaty that established relations between Japan and South Korea. Not surprisingly, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) responded to the ruling by informing Nam Gwan-pyo, South Korea’s ambassador to Japan, that the Japanese government “absolutely cannot accept” it. Tokyo has the option of appealing the ruling, but is unlikely to do so in light of its position on sovereign immunity. Once the ruling is finalized, the court could, as in the forced labor case, order Japanese government assets in South Korea seized in order to provide compensation for the plaintiffs. This step, however, could still be a long way off. In the meantime, the Seoul Central District Court will rule on a second comfort women case – twenty plaintiffs seeking KRW 3bn (USD 2.7mn) from the Japanese government – although it announced on Monday, 11 January that, instead of delivering a verdict on 13 January, it would reopen oral arguments at a hearing on 24 March. Although senior Japanese and South Korean officials resumed talks in late 2020, focused mainly on the forced labor dispute that led Japan to withdraw trade privileges in 2019, these talks were inconclusive as neither government would abandon its position. The comfort women ruling will likely make both sides dig in deeper. The issue is perhaps the most sensitive bilateral issue; the Japanese government is particularly defensive because it blames the Moon administration for exacerbating the issue by abandoning the 2015 agreement between former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s and former South Korean president Park Geun-hye’s governments. In that pact, Abe agreed to offer an apology and compensation to surviving comfort women in exchange for the issue’s being confirmed as “resolved finally and irreversibly.” Moon Jae-in criticized the agreement for not consulting with the comfort women themselves, and, after becoming president, effectively dismantled it (made easier because it was an informal agreement that was never submitted to national legislatures for ratification). Moon’s handling of the 2015 agreement suggests that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will be reluctant to offer similar terms as Abe offered in 2015, let alone a farther-reaching agreement. Furthermore, domestic politics in both countries make it unlikely that either leader will be able to offer meaningful concessions. Moon’s support has plummeted due to public perceptions of an ineffective Covid-19 vaccine rollout, which the administration is scrambling to fix ahead of mayoral and gubernatorial by-elections in key constituencies, including Seoul. Suga, meanwhile, has seen a sharp decline in his support due to his perceived mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic, complicating his chances of winning a full term as Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader in September and the LDP’s prospects in the general election that must be held by October. The upshot is that neither leader is likely to offer concessions that would likely be unpopular with their political bases and publics more broadly.

January 11, 2021

Asia

JAPAN/SOUTH KOREA: Comfort women ruling drives new wedge in relationship

BY Tobias Harris

Report Contents

More by Tobias Harris

ASIA: Weekly politics update

JAPAN/US: Biden and Suga use first meeting to offer new vision

ASIA: Weekly politics update

ASIA: Weekly politics update

SOUTH KOREA: Parties look to next year as Moon suffers by-election defeats

ASIA: Weekly politics update

ASIA: Weekly politics update

ASIA: Weekly politics update

KOREAN PENINSULA: New administration works to strengthen cooperation with Seoul

January 11, 2021

Asia

JAPAN/SOUTH KOREA: Comfort women ruling drives new wedge in relationship

BY Tobias Harris

Report Contents

Registration

More by Tobias Harris

ASIA: Weekly politics update

JAPAN/US: Biden and Suga use first meeting to offer new vision

ASIA: Weekly politics update

ASIA: Weekly politics update

SOUTH KOREA: Parties look to next year as Moon suffers by-election defeats

ASIA: Weekly politics update

ASIA: Weekly politics update

ASIA: Weekly politics update

KOREAN PENINSULA: New administration works to strengthen cooperation with Seoul