Changing Domestic Structure and Fluctuations of the Japan-South Korea Relationship

• In Event: Global Perspectives on Foreign Policy

Abstract

How can we explain the volatile policy changes between Japan and South Korea regarding security and historical issues? Why is security and historical agreement possible at one time, but not at the other time? Conventional theories such as constructivist and neoclassical realists cannot adequately explain the sudden and unexpected foreign policy changes between Japan and South Korea, so the author argues that scholars should look at the domestic structure to analyze the volatility of foreign policy in Japan and South Korea. By looking at the congruence or divergence perception between the state and domestic actors on issues between Japan and South Korea in the 2010s, particularly case of GSOMIA and Comfort Women, the author tries to find out why the state implements the foreign policy in a certain way and time and whether the policy was made in the responsive to the certain domestic actor.

Author

• Hwayoung Lee