Why Japan’s Feud With South Korea Isn’t Going Away

Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula ended more than seven decades ago, yet that legacy still roils everyday politics. South Korea and Japan, major trading partners and both U.S. military allies, have been at loggerheads over what constitutes proper contrition and compensation for Koreans conscripted to work in factories and mines that supplied Japan’s imperial war machine, and those euphemistically called “comfort women,” who were forced to work in military brothels. Japan contends all claims were settled under a 1965 bilateral agreement and a fund set up in 2015. Seoul argues Japan hasn’t done enough. Some of Japan’s largest companies have been dragged into the fray, and the situation is affecting the two countries’ ability to cooperate on security and other issues.

Hundreds of thousands of Koreans were conscripted during the 1910-1945 colonial period to work, often in brutal conditions, at dozens of Japanese companies. At the time of a 1965 treaty that established diplomatic ties between the two countries, Japan paid the equivalent of $300 million -- $2.5 billion in today’s money -- and extended $200 million in low-interest loans on the understanding all claims were “settled completely and finally.” The then-struggling South Korea invested the money in industries that eventually helped turn it into an economic powerhouse. However, South Korean court rulings since late 2018 have said some conscripted workers were not properly compensated for their emotional pain and suffering.