Comfort Woman: Closure on thorny issue will come down to political will
Nikkei Asian Review: 2 November 2015
SEOUL -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe let out a small sigh of relief as he walked into the elevator of the Lotte Hotel in Seoul after addressing the press Monday afternoon.
He had just ended his first meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and was generally pleased with the outcome. Their talk lasted an hour and 45 minutes, the first hour of which was dedicated mostly to the wartime "comfort women" issue. Despite it being the thorniest matter lying between the two countries, "there wasn't a single moment when either side got emotional," according to a Japanese official who was there.
The words exchanged between the leaders were positive. Whether that feel-good atmosphere evolves into real-world results will ultimately come down to the political will of Abe and Park.
There were three new elements to Abe's stance when he met Park at the presidential Blue House. First, he said he wanted to "settle the issue as soon as possible," which is a shift from the Japanese government's official stance that the issue has already been settled.
He also pointed out that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of the Japan-South Korea relationship, and that "with that anniversary in mind, we agreed to accelerate negotiations" for a settlement. Park had been signaling in interviews leading up to the meeting that she wanted a settlement by the end of the year.
Perhaps most importantly, Abe said he did not want to "leave the comfort women issue as an obstacle for future generations as the two countries build a future-oriented cooperative relationship." The words signal that the Japanese leader wants to solve the issue once and for all while he is in office.
New confidence
The decision to take on the contentious issue -- which no previous Japanese government has been able to resolve -- is based on the confidence he gained from the positive response to his statement in August marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Although he received criticism from both the political left and right -- for either conceding too much or not conceding enough -- "he managed to quell the debate," said Kunihiko Miyake, research director at the Canon Institute for Global Studies. "Nobody is talking about it anymore; not the Chinese, the Koreans, the right or the left. He managed to find a minimum consensus."
The South Korean side is asking for two things: a "sincere apology" from the Japanese leader and compensation for the thousands of women who had to work in wartime brothels. In the meeting, Park expressed hope for a solution that is "acceptable for the victims, and satisfactory for the Korean people."
The Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea of 1965 -- which established diplomatic relations between the two countries -- noted that with that treaty, all claims between Japan and South Korea were settled "completely and finally."
The Japanese side says because of that treaty, any monetary assistance to the victims cannot come as government compensation. "It would be like opening Pandora's box. It would invite all sorts of new claims," Canon Institute's Miyake said. The two leaders would have to search for another way, such as "humanitarian assistance," which is what they discussed during Monday's meeting.
Japan has attempted this approach before, when dovish Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama established The Asian Women's Fund in 1994. Former comfort women in South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Indonesia were offered a signed apology from the prime minister, as well as 2 million yen ($16,570) each.
Yet, because the source of that money was donations from Japanese people and not from government coffers, most South Koreans declined to accept the cash.
Abe's team will explore the possibility of establishing a similar fund, but one that the South Koreans would be ready to accept. It will be up to Park to convince her people that this would be the final solution. And with the victims getting older by the day, it will be a race against time.
Why would a plan that did not work in the 1990s work now? "The biggest difference between then and now is that the hawkish Abe, and not the dovish Murayama, will be leading the negotiations," said Miyake.
For years, Abe has been one of the strongest critics of the 1993 Kono Statement, released by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono after the conclusion of a government study that found that the Japanese Imperial Army had "forced" comfort women to work in military-run brothels during the war.
In the final weeks of the year, there will be a renewed effort to reach an agreement that both sides can accept. Is there a minimum consensus that just might be reached by the people on both sides? At stake is the future relationship of two neighbors who are close in many ways yet so far apart in others. Which leader will blink?
Nikkei Asian Review: 2 November 2015
SEOUL -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe let out a small sigh of relief as he walked into the elevator of the Lotte Hotel in Seoul after addressing the press Monday afternoon.
He had just ended his first meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and was generally pleased with the outcome. Their talk lasted an hour and 45 minutes, the first hour of which was dedicated mostly to the wartime "comfort women" issue. Despite it being the thorniest matter lying between the two countries, "there wasn't a single moment when either side got emotional," according to a Japanese official who was there.
There were three new elements to Abe's stance when he met Park at the presidential Blue House. First, he said he wanted to "settle the issue as soon as possible," which is a shift from the Japanese government's official stance that the issue has already been settled.
He also pointed out that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of the Japan-South Korea relationship, and that "with that anniversary in mind, we agreed to accelerate negotiations" for a settlement. Park had been signaling in interviews leading up to the meeting that she wanted a settlement by the end of the year.
Perhaps most importantly, Abe said he did not want to "leave the comfort women issue as an obstacle for future generations as the two countries build a future-oriented cooperative relationship." The words signal that the Japanese leader wants to solve the issue once and for all while he is in office.
New confidence
The decision to take on the contentious issue -- which no previous Japanese government has been able to resolve -- is based on the confidence he gained from the positive response to his statement in August marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Although he received criticism from both the political left and right -- for either conceding too much or not conceding enough -- "he managed to quell the debate," said Kunihiko Miyake, research director at the Canon Institute for Global Studies. "Nobody is talking about it anymore; not the Chinese, the Koreans, the right or the left. He managed to find a minimum consensus."
The South Korean side is asking for two things: a "sincere apology" from the Japanese leader and compensation for the thousands of women who had to work in wartime brothels. In the meeting, Park expressed hope for a solution that is "acceptable for the victims, and satisfactory for the Korean people."
The Japanese side says because of that treaty, any monetary assistance to the victims cannot come as government compensation. "It would be like opening Pandora's box. It would invite all sorts of new claims," Canon Institute's Miyake said. The two leaders would have to search for another way, such as "humanitarian assistance," which is what they discussed during Monday's meeting.
Japan has attempted this approach before, when dovish Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama established The Asian Women's Fund in 1994. Former comfort women in South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Indonesia were offered a signed apology from the prime minister, as well as 2 million yen ($16,570) each.
Yet, because the source of that money was donations from Japanese people and not from government coffers, most South Koreans declined to accept the cash.
Abe's team will explore the possibility of establishing a similar fund, but one that the South Koreans would be ready to accept. It will be up to Park to convince her people that this would be the final solution. And with the victims getting older by the day, it will be a race against time.
Why would a plan that did not work in the 1990s work now? "The biggest difference between then and now is that the hawkish Abe, and not the dovish Murayama, will be leading the negotiations," said Miyake.
For years, Abe has been one of the strongest critics of the 1993 Kono Statement, released by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono after the conclusion of a government study that found that the Japanese Imperial Army had "forced" comfort women to work in military-run brothels during the war.
In the final weeks of the year, there will be a renewed effort to reach an agreement that both sides can accept. Is there a minimum consensus that just might be reached by the people on both sides? At stake is the future relationship of two neighbors who are close in many ways yet so far apart in others. Which leader will blink?
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