Risk State: Japan's Foreign Policy in an Age of Uncertainty: ‘North Korea and the Politics of Risk-Framing in Japan’ (Chapter Review)

TexResearching Japan, the compulsory module of the MA in Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies, involves a lot of reading. As this week’s lecture, with Dr. Ra Mason, was on International Relations, it seemed fitting to do a chapter review on a book he edited: Risk State: Japan's Foreign Policy in an Age of Uncertainty. I’m also unfamiliar with the subject but do have some grounding in the history of Japan, China and North and South Korea from 1945 to the present so I selected the chapter on relations with North Korea to examine in depth.

This chapter begins by discussing an important aspect of the relationship between the two countries, the forced abduction of around thirteen* Japanese citizens (most famously Yokota Megumi) between 1977 to 1983. This has remained a bone of contention between the two nation-states, despite the return of several abductees and their families in October 2002. 

The abductees, supported by the Japanese government, then refused to return to North Korea (a part of the agreement) further sullying the relations between the two countries. Given their initial abduction, it does seem absurd to demand this however North Korea has thus become the ‘victim’ in their narrative, cheated out of what they saw as a legal agreement whilst also ignoring the fact that they began by abducting citizens of another nation from that nation (and also Europe).

The chapter also focuses on the geographic link between the two countries, especially important during 2019, and most recently in September 2021, when North Korea engaged in missile tests near Japanese airspace, as well as discussing the threat of the country as a nuclear power.

Whilst looking at North Korea from a Japanese political perspective, the relationship between Tokyo and Pyongyang is very much at the forefront of discussion. The chapter itself is detailed and fascinating as it raises the main issues Japan has with its nearest and most volatile neighbour, especially given North Korea’s dream of becoming a superpower, and not necessarily a peaceful one at that.

The discussion is interesting but also in-depth, perhaps mirroring the rollercoaster of Japanese and North Korean relations over the last few decades. It also frames the latter as a very real and tangible threat to Japan, and not just in terms of geographic location. With a strained relationship which is a much more pressing issue than even China and its relationship with Taiwan.

*The official number Pyongyang, in this case Kim Jong-il specifically, has admitted to abducting, there may be more… This also does not include other abductees who are not Japanese citizen.

Bibliography

Maslow, S., Mason, R. and O'Shea, P. (2016). Risk state: Japan's foreign policy in an age of uncertainty. London. Routledge.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (2012) Abductions of Japanese Citizens by North Korea https://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/n_korea/abduction/pdfs/abductions_en.pdf [Accessed on 14th October 2021