Isabel ReynoldsTokyo — Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula ended more than seven decades ago, yet that legacy still roils everyday politics on both sides.
Japan contends all claims were settled under a 1965 bilateral treaty and a fund set up in 2015. Seoul argues Japan has not done enough. Some of Japan’s largest companies have been dragged into the fray, and the situation is affecting the two countries’ ability to co-operate on security and other issues.Hundreds of thousands of Koreans were conscripted during the 1910-1945 colonial period to work, often in brutal conditions, at dozens of Japanese companies.
In 2015, Japan and South Korea announced a “final and irreversible” agreement that came with a personal apology from Abe as well as about $8m for a compensation fund. But many South Koreans opposed the deal, which was signed without consulting the victims, some of whom refused the money in protest. Under President Moon Jae-in, who took office in 2017, South Korea shut down the fund, angering Tokyo.