Description
Despite common national interests including the existential nuclear threat from North Korea, sustained alliance alignment with the United States, shared liberal-democratic traditions and convergent economies, Japan and the Republic of Korea have long faced seemingly intractable challenges in moving beyond the legacy of history in building a successful bilateral partnership. The Liberal Democratic Party’s pragmatic and proactive foreign policy, whether under late Prime Minister Abe Shinzo or the current Prime Minister, Kishida Fumio, should in principle have allowed the two countries to move beyond such challenges and establish an effective cooperative relationship. This paper deploys new perspectives from social psychology, neuroscience and intellectual history to better understand how sentiment, mutual victimisation, the legacy of trauma, frustrated agency and political nostalgia continue to frustrate efforts at building an effective partnership.
