How does Republic of Korea (ROK) perceive Japan? ROK's Defense White Paper 2018
described Japan as "Partner," but the 2020 version describes it as "Neighbor. This paper
analyzed the changes in the ROK's perception of Japan, comparing to China.
ROK entered into “Partnership” with each of Japan and China in 1998. Since then, ROK
has upgraded “Partnership” only once with Japan, but three times with China.
ROK’s description of China as "Partner" is ordinary case and ROK has continued to
upgrade the partnership with China. For ROK, China is what it would like to describe as
"Partner". On the other hand, ROK’s description of Japan as “Partner” is not ordinary case,
but special case. For ROK, Japan is what it cannot describe as “Partner” because ROK needs
to adopt countermeasures and does not have “common fundamental values”. Therefore, at
present, ROK can only describe Japan as “Neighbor”.
韓国の外交・安全保障における日本の位置づけ
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