Citing an article by Kobe University professor Minohara Toshihiro in the Sankei Shimbun, this essay analyzes the deterioration of Japan–South Korea relations and Japan’s declining strategic influence in Asia.
As global politics increasingly returns to a power-based order, Japanese media must abandon populism and adopt a realist perspective befitting a major power.

February 10, 2019.
Japan’s newspapers should face these harsh realities squarely, abandon populistic attitudes, and commit themselves to reporting grounded in the realism befitting a major power.
The following is an excerpt from an article by Minohara Toshihiro, professor at the Graduate School of Law at Kobe University, published in today’s Sankei Shimbun.
Introductory section omitted.
According to President Moon Jae-in, these incidents are supposedly “the result of an unfortunate history,” but from a common-sense perspective the series of problems stems from a lack of basic judgment on the part of South Korea.
Failing to honor agreements such as the 1965 Japan–South Korea Basic Treaty, disregarding international law, changing explanations repeatedly regarding the radar-lock incident, and shifting responsibility onto Japan—many observers besides the author must be exasperated by such insincerity from South Korea.
In the past, even when tensions arose over issues such as the illegal occupation of Takeshima, historical recognition, or the erection of comfort-women statues, the security relationship between the two countries remained unaffected.
However, once the Moon Jae-in administration came to power and began leaning toward rapprochement with North Korea, anti-Japan sentiment transformed in character from a convenient domestic political tool into a diplomatic instrument emphasizing solidarity between the two Koreas.
For the first time, this development has seriously damaged the military relationship between Japan and South Korea.
Naturally, Japanese newspapers have expressed severe criticism of the South Korean government’s actions that deepen friction between the two countries.
Omitted section.
Furthermore, despite the significant difference in national scale between Japan and South Korea in terms of population and GDP, the gap in defense spending is not particularly large.
In other words, South Korea was able to launch a series of provocative actions because it judged that severing relations with Japan first would incur little penalty.
Conversely, this also reflects the price Japan has paid for its long stagnation and declining influence in Asia.
Japan has still been unable to revise its constitution and remains bound to an exclusively defensive posture.
In United Nations peacekeeping operations Japan has been protected by the forces of other countries and has taken no actions in the security sphere befitting a major power, so it is hardly surprising if South Korea completely underestimates Japan.
This attitude is shared as well by China and Russia in their approach toward Japan.
As American influence gradually declines, international politics will increasingly be governed by the concept of power more than ever before.
Japan’s newspapers should confront these cold realities directly, reject populistic attitudes, and pursue reporting grounded in the realism appropriate to a major power.