If ever there was a tiff in a toddlers' pool, this is it. In the latest twist in the convoluted dispute between Japan and South Korea over what to call the body of water that separates them, the government announced last week that it would send experts to the U.S. Library of Congress to re-examine antique maps it said South Korea had mischaracterized in its campaign for a name change. Japan argues for keeping the long-held name Sea of Japan, while South Korea -- encouraged by the North -- calls that name offensive and argues that it is, in any case, predated by both "Sea of Korea" and "East Sea" (in short, anything but the Sea of Japan).
In a week when the world was sobered by real natural and man-made tragedies -- lethal typhoons and hurricanes in Japan and the United States, terrorist carnage in a Russian school and a stubborn humanitarian crisis in Sudan -- the resurfacing of this artificial problem is an embarrassment to both countries involved. If there is a less urgent diplomatic issue on the planet just now, it doesn't spring to mind.
Two years ago, we expressed in this space the half-whimsical hope that a resolution might be achieved with the choice of an entirely new, neutral name -- not Sea of Japan, Sea of Korea or East Sea (the last a barely disguised nose-thumbing at Japan), but some fourth label with a natural rather than a geographic reference. We recall suggesting Sea of Tranquillity, although Sea of Teacup-Size Storms would be just as apt. Some dreamed that the cohosts of the World Cup might jointly sponsor a competition to find a new name that would soothe the historic sensitivities of both. More realistically, it was hoped that third parties might craft a solution at the meeting of the 70-nation International Hydrographic Organization to be held in November that year.