NEW YORK -- A friend of mine in Tokyo has sent me two recent proposals to improve Japan's relations with its neighbors. One, by the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, deals with China and is addressed to both the Japanese and Chinese governments; the other, by the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives, deals with China and Korea and mainly lists what Japan should do to address the impasse.
If the former is diplomatic, the latter is "frank." The Kansai report, in fact, is sobering in the details it gives of the great lengths to which the Korean and Chinese governments go to fan and perpetuate anti-Japanese sentiments.
South Korea, for example, has legislation to "investigate truths about anti-national ( ban-minjog ) acts during the forced occupation by Japanese imperialism." The commission set up by the law consists of 11 members -- four recommended by the president, four by Parliament and three by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. It probes Koreans who worked for the Japanese administrative offices in Korea. One might presume that this commission is something that was created following Japan's defeat in 1945 and that happens to be still functioning today. No. The law came into being in December 2004.