South Korean views on Japan's constitutional reform under the Abe government |
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Authors: | E J R Cho Ki-young Shin |
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Affiliation: | 1. Northeast Asian History Foundation, Seoul, South Korea;2. Institute for Gender Studies and the Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences, Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, Japan |
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Abstract: | In this Special Section, this article reviews South Korean views on Japan's ‘peace’ Constitution and the Abe government's attempts at constitutional reform. It identifies three different understandings among South Korean academics on why Japan is escalating attempts to revise the Constitution under the Abe government. An in-depth analysis demonstrates that all three perspectives pay specific attention to Japan's constitutional reform in relation to security policy changes. However, they differ in assessing the impact of Japan's constitutional reform on South Korea as well as how South Korea should deal with such a change. A minority opinion considers Japan's ‘remilitarisation’ through constitutional revision as conducive to South Korean security interests by increasing deterrence against North Korea, whereas the dominant opinion is that any attempt to revise the Constitution could be in and of itself a potential threat to South Korea's security due to a lack of trust attributed to unresolved historical conflicts between Korea and Japan. However, all three approaches pay hardly any attention to the positive role of Japan's peace Constitution while Japan's peace Constitution might provide a regional peace model in Northeast Asia. |
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Keywords: | Japanese peace constitution Article 9 constitutional reform South Korean–Japanese relations Northeast Asia |
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