Korean Public Opinion on Japan Still Fragile

Dissymmetry as Japanese opinion towards Korea improves while Korean opinion towards Japan remains mixed.

Summary: Public opinion of Koreans towards Japan and of Japanese towards Korea has both improved this year as the two countries have mended their broken relationship. But Koreans are still more skeptical of Japan than vice versa. The relationship could still fracture if Japan doesn’t do its part.

One of the biggest developments in Korean foreign policy this past year was the Yoon Seok-youl administration’s outreach to Japan. Yoon abandoned South Korea’s pursuit of an apology and compensation from Japan over the issue of forced labor Koreans had to endure at the hands of Japanese companies during the Japanese occupation.

The move had allowed for South Korea and Japan to normalize diplomatic, trade, and military relations and paved the way for Korea, Japan, and the U.S. to move closer toward trilateral cooperation. But it was very unpopular amongst South Korea’s public, and Korean public opinion of Japan is still mixed.

Korean Public Opinion of Japan

Genron NPO publishes public opinion surveys of Japan and Korea every year. Their latest survey was published in November 2023. Korean favorability of Japan increased fell from 30.4% last year to 28.9% this year. Both measures were higher than the low of 12.3% in 2020 but still lower than its high of 31.7% in 2019.

Thirty-six percent of Koreans have a poor opinion of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, up 15 points from 2022. By contrast, only 4.1% of Japanese have a negative view of Korean President Yoon.

Japanese Public Opinion of Korea — And the Reason for the Dissymmetry

Japanese public opinion towards Korea is much more favorable than Korean opinion towards Japan. Thirty-seven percent of Japanese have a positive impression of Korea, which is up from 30.6% last year and up from 20.0% in 2019. In each of the past four years, more Japanese people have had a positive opinion of Korea than Koreans who had a positive opinion of Japan. That is true over the long term, too, except for a brief period from 2018-19.

It makes sense that the historically colonized country would have a lesser opinion of the colonizer. South Korea is the victim. South Korean history emphasizes its status as the victim of Japanese brutalities. Japanese history, on the other hand, downplays its history in Korea and justifies its actions.

Koreans spend more time thinking about Japan and resenting Japan for its real and perceived sins than Japanese do about Korea.

Genron NPO’s write up of the survey results states:

The most commonly selected answer among South Korean respondents for the reason for their poor impression of Japan (at 65.4%) was that they believe Japan has not properly reflected on its history in regard to its invasion of the Korean Peninsula.

Japan isn’t demanding an apology from Korea. Korea has more grievances to settle and more grievances unsettled.

The resolution to the diplomatic stalemate did not bring a resolution to the Korean people. Yoon merely gave up on trying to enforce the Supreme Court ruling demanding the victims be compensated. Perhaps he didn’t even agree with the ruling in the first place. But the Korean people still want an apology and/or compensation.

The issue is not going away, and the Korean Supreme Court just ruled again affirming its original judgment:

South Korea Supreme Court upholds damages for wartime laborers - Nikkei Asia

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