Prioritizing Free Speech or the Dignity of Victims: Competing Approaches to Public Discourse in Japan and South Korea

Japan’s volatile ties with democratic South Korea, and its relatively stable relations with autocratic China, seem to contradict theories of international cooperation, theories which posit cooperation between democracies, and non-cooperation between democracies and autocracies. Tokyo and Seoul exemplify a third type of relationship, that between different types of democracies. Given that even the most liberal societies demonstrate some gaps in the degree to which they uphold individual liberties, there is a potential for friction between these regimes, especially when differing collective memories of the same events trigger different features of their respective political cultures. With respect to human rights violations during the Japanese colonial era, the two democracies sharply diverge: Seoul espouses a victim-centered approach that prioritizes the dignity of victims over free speech, and Tokyo a free-speech approach that tolerates pluralist discourses. Unless one yields to the preferred mode of the other, each will criticize the other as illiberal, even though they are both liberal compared to China.