Public Lecture Series by Distinguished Guest Speakers from Japan: Mechanism and Histories of ‘Historical Disputes’ between Japan and South Korea

Abstract
How have relations between Japan and South Korea changed over the last half century? Professor Kimura explores this question by looking at the changing domestic and geopolitical circumstances that might shape the conditions of this relationship today. Arguing that the two countries now have less power asymmetry, there is an urgent need to renegotiate the terms of the Treaty on Basic Relations Between Japan and the Republic of Korea, a treaty that is now fifty years old. These changes ought to take into account South Korea’s reduced economic dependence on Japan, new strategic alliances and the decline of old historical hurts from memory. A benign neglect in updating this treaty risks an absence of a functioning bilateral mechanism in the case of an emergency.

About the Speaker
Dr. Kan Kimura is Professor of Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, at Kobe University, Japan. He was born in Osaka, Japan in 1966, and got his doctoral degree from Kyoto University in 2001. He also taught at Ehime University, Japan and studied at many academic institutes, including Seoul National University, Harvard University, Australian National University and the University of Washington as a visiting scholar. His major is Comparative politics and Korean studies. He has published many books and papers about Korean politics in Japanese, English or Korean, including: Nikkan Rekishininshiki Mondai towa Nanika in 2014, and 'Discovery of Disputes', "Journal of Korean Studies" Vol.17, No.1, in 2012.