Japan–South Korea relations

Japan–South Korea relations are the diplomatic, economic, and security ties between Japan and South Korea, shaped by shared interests and disputes rooted in history and territory.

Japanese rule of Korea: Japan governed Korea as a colony from 1910 until its surrender in 1945. Colonial rule is the central historical source of disputes over forced labor, comfort women, and memory.
Japan–South Korea shuttle diplomacy: A practice of reciprocal visits by Japanese and South Korean leaders to sustain direct political communication. Regular leader-level contact has helped restore dialogue during periods of strained relations.
Japan–South Korea trade dispute: A 2019 confrontation involving Japanese export controls and South Korean trade-policy responses. It showed how historical and legal tensions could disrupt high-tech supply chains.
Liancourt Rocks dispute: The territorial dispute over a group of islets called Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan. The competing sovereignty claims are a recurring source of nationalist tension and diplomatic protest.
2015 Japan–South Korea comfort women agreement: A bilateral agreement in which Japan expressed responsibility and provided funding for a foundation addressing the comfort women issue. Its contested implementation and later dissolution showed the limits of executive-level settlements without broad acceptance.
Japan–Korea Treaty of 1965: The agreements normalizing relations between Japan and South Korea, signed in 1965. It established diplomatic ties and addressed claims, but left lasting disagreements over individual compensation.
GSOMIA: The General Security of Military Information Agreement, a pact for sharing classified military information between Japan and South Korea. Its threatened termination in 2019 showed how historical disputes can spill into security cooperation.
Semiconductor industry in South Korea: South Korea's large-scale production of memory chips and other semiconductor products. Its reliance on specialized materials made Japanese export controls economically significant.
Japanese history textbook controversies: Disputes over how Japanese school textbooks describe the country's modern wars and colonial rule. Textbook revisions can revive South Korean concerns about the treatment of colonial and wartime history.
South Korea's 2023 forced labor compensation plan: A South Korean government plan to compensate plaintiffs in wartime labor cases through a public foundation rather than direct Japanese payments. The plan enabled diplomatic rapprochement but remained controversial among plaintiffs and the South Korean public.

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