Japanese-South Korean Textbook Talks: The Necessity of Political Leadership

One of the most notorious issues haunting Japanese-South Korean relations is the controversy over textbook depictions of Japan’s colonial rule and war atrocities in the early twentieth century. In recent years, a number of bilateral projects have been launched on both the non-governmental and governmental level, seeking to narrow divergences in historical perceptions. Focusing on the Japanese side, this article assesses the impact of recent non-governmental textbook projects, arguing that these projects—while important and encouraging—have a limited capacity to prompt changes in educational policies. Textbook talks officially endorsed by the government and supported by a critical mass of politicians remain indispensable to promote a transnational reconstruction of the past. Based on a comparison between Japanese-South Korean and German-Polish government-backed talks, the paper identifies how decision makers can help foster an atmosphere conducive to the work of bilateral textbook commissions. It concludes that a key requirement for successful talks is that politicians, utilizing a variety of measures, pursue the dual goal of demonstrating high-level commitment to the talks and shielding the work proactively from nationalistic pressures. In contrast to their German counterparts, Japanese political elites have so far failed to pursue such an environment, casting doubts about progress in the textbook dispute for the foreseeable future.