Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T13:54:58.855Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

National Interest or Transnational Alliances? Japanese Policy on the Comfort Women Issue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2016

Yangmo Ku
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

When and why does a perpetrator state take a contrite stance on its past wrongs? More specifically, why do Japanese behaviors differ over time in addressing apology and compensation with regard to the comfort women issue? In this article I address these questions by testing two hypotheses, utilizing an instrumentalist approach and a transnational-political activism model. The former posits a perpetrator state is more likely to take a contrite stance on its past misdeeds when it calculates such action is in its security and/or economic interests. The latter hypothesizes that when transnational activism is powerful and a perpetrator state is led by a progressive ruling coalition, the state is more likely to adopt conciliatory policies toward historical issues. I find that the transnational-political activism model possesses more explanatory power than instrumentalism for within-case variations in Japanese behavior toward the comfort women issue. The two approaches are not, however, mutually exclusive and are complementary in some regards. The effect of transnational activism is heightened when the target state is faced with other geopolitical incentives and/or when the target state is led by a progressive ruling coalition and has weak conservative reaction.

Keywords

instrumentalismtransnational-political activism modelcomfort womenapology and compensationpostwar Japanese history policy
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , August 2015 , pp. 243 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © East Asia Institute 

References

Asian Women's Fund. 2007. The Comfort Women Issue and AWF. Tokyo: AWF.Google Scholar
Berger, Thomas. 2007. “The Politics of Memory in Japanese Foreign Relations.” In Japan in International Politics: The Foreign Policies of an Adaptive State , ed. Berger, Thomas, Mochizuki, Mike, and Tsuchiyama, Jitsuo. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Berger, Thomas. 2012. War, Guilt, and World Politics After World War II. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cha, Victor. 1999. Alignment Despite Antagonism: The US-Korea-Japan Security Triangle. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Chang, Insung. 2008. “Chunhu Ilbon ui bosujuui wa kukka pyosang” [Postwar Japan's conservatism and state representation]. Paper presented at the Institute for Japanese Studies' workshop on postwar Japan's conservatism, Seoul National University.Google Scholar
Chung, Chin-sung. 2001. Hyundae Ilbon ui sahoe undongron [Social movements in modern Japan]. Seoul: Nanam Publishing House.Google Scholar
Chung, Eun-jung. 2004. “Hanil Chogukjok Onghomang e kwanhan Yongu” [The study of Korea-Japan transnational advocacy network]. Master's thesis, Kyunghee University.Google Scholar
Hayashi, Hirofumi. 2001. “The Japanese Movement to Protest Wartime Sexual Violence: A Survey of Japanese and International Literature.” Critical Asian Studies 33, 4: 572–580.Google Scholar
He, Yinan. 2009. The Search for Reconciliation: Sino-Japanese and German-Polish Relations Since World War II. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel. 1957. “Conservatism as an Ideology.” American Political Science Review 51, 2: 454–473.Google Scholar
Katzenstein, Peter J., Keohane, Robert O., and Krasner, Stephen D. 1998. “International Organization and the Study of World Politics.” International Organization 52, 4: 645–685.Google Scholar
Keck, Margaret E., and Sikkink, Kathryn. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kim, Mikyoung. 2008. “Myths, Milieu, and Facts: History Textbook Controversies in Northeast Asia.” In East Asia's Haunted Present: Historical Memories and the Resurgence of Nationalism , ed. Tsuyoshi, Hasegawa and Kazuhiko, Togo. Westport: Praeger Security International.Google Scholar
Laak, Dirk. 2003. “From the Conservative Revolution to Technocratic Conservatism.” In German Ideologies Since 1945: Studies in the Political Thought and Culture of the Bonn Republic , ed. Muller, Jan-Werner. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Lee, Won-deog. 1996. Han-Il Kwagosa ch 'ori ui wonjom: Ilbon ui chonhuch 'ori oegyo wa Han-Il hoedam [Starting point for settlement of Korea-Japan past history]. Seoul: Seoul National University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Won-deog. 2007. “Ilbon ui jeonhu chori oekyo yongu: Dae Asia Jeonhu Baesang Jeongchaek ui Gujo wa Hamui” [The study of Japan's postwar settlements diplomacy: Structure and implications of Japan's postwar reparation policy toward Asia]. Ilbonhak yongu [Japanese studies] 22: 381–409.Google Scholar
Lind, Jennifer. 2008. Sorry States: Apologies in International Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
McCormack, Gavan. 2000. “The Japanese Movement to Correct History.” In Censoring History: Citizenship and Memory in Japan, Germany, and the United States , ed. Hein, Laura and Selden, Mark. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Mitsui, Hideko. 2007. “The Resignification of the Comfort Women Through NGO Trials.” In Rethinking Historical Injustice and Reconciliation in Northeast Asia , ed. Shin, Giwook, Park, Soonwon, and Yang, Daqing. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mochizuki, Mike. 2007. “Japan's Changing International Role.” In Japan in International Politics: The Foreign Policies of an Adaptive State , ed. Berger, Thomas, Mochizuki, Mike, and Tsuchiyama, Jitsuo. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. 2005. “Free Speech—Silenced Voices: The Japanese Media and the NHK Affair.” Asia Rights 4, 5.Google Scholar
Nozaki, Yoshiko. 2005. “Japanese Politics and the History Textbook Controversy, 1945–2001.” In History Education and National Identity in East Asia , ed. Vickers, Edward and Jones, Alisa. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Onuma, Yasuaki. 2007. Ilbon eun Sajoe hago sipda: Ilbonkun Yianbu Munche wa Asia Yeosong Kigeum [Japan wants to apologize: The comfort women issue and the Asia Women's Fund]. Seoul: Chonryak kwa Munhwa.Google Scholar
Park, Cheol Hee. 2004. “Jeonsu bangwi esǒ jeokkuk bangwi ro: Miil Dongmaeng mit Wihyup Insik ui Byunhwa wa Ilbon Bangwi Jeongchaek ui Jeongchi” [From comprehensive security to active security: The change of the US-Japan Alliance and threat perception, and the politics of Japan's security policy]. Kukje jeongchi nonchong [Journal of international politics] 44: 1.Google Scholar
Park, Cheol Hee. 2007. “Japanese Strategic Thinking Toward Korea.” In Japan's Strategic Thought Toward Asia , ed. Rozman, Gilbert. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Piper, Nicola. 2001. “Transnational Women's Activism in Japan and Korea: The Unresolved Issue of Military Sexual Slavery.” Global Networks 1, 2: 155–170.Google Scholar
Price, Richard. 1998. “Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines.” International Organization 52, 3: 613–644.Google Scholar
Price, Richard. 2003. “Transnational Civil Society and Advocacy in World Politics.” World Politics 55: 579–606.Google Scholar
Saaler, Sven. 2005. Politics, Memory and Public Opinion: The History Textbook Controversy and Japanese Society. Tokyo: German Institute for Japanese Studies.Google Scholar
Seaton, Philip. 2006. “Reporting the Comfort Women Issue, 1991–1992: Japan's Contested War Memories in the National Press.” Japanese Studies 26, 1: 103–105.Google Scholar
Seraphim, Franziska. 2006. War Memory and Social Politics in Japan, 1945–2005. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Soeya, Yoshihide. 2006. Ilbon ui Mideul Pawo Oekyo: Chonhu Ilbon ui Sontaek kwa Kusang [Japan's middle power diplomacy: Postwar Japan's choice and idea]. Seoul: Ohreum.Google Scholar
Soh, Sarah. 2003. “Japan's National/Asian Women's Fund for Comfort Women.” Pacific Affairs 76, 2: 209–233.Google Scholar
Soh, Sarah. 2008. The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Yang, Kiwoong. 2008. “South Korea and Japan's Frictions over History: A Linguistic Constructivist Reading.” Asian Perspective 32, 3: 59–86.Google Scholar
Yoon, Mihyang. 2007. “Ilbonkun Wianbu Munche Haegyol ul wihan Asia Yondae 15 Nyon” [Fifteen-year Asian solidarity for resolving Japan's military comfort women issue]. In Chongdaehyop Charyojip [The Korean Council's sourcebook], ed. Council, Korean.Google Scholar
Yoshimi, Yoshiaki. 2000. Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar