竹島問題の歴史

11.9.09

Is the Dokdo-Takeshima debate still alive in Japan?

I heard my name mentioned in the video below and am curious to know the background and what is being said. Could someone please give me a brief summary? It may be an old video, but I just found it mentioned in a September 2, 2009 post on Occidentalism.

I apologize for not participating in the debate much this year. I have tried to stay away from the Dokdo-Takeshima dispute mainly because of job-related concerns, but also because I have been busy with other things. Another reason is that I had lost a lot of motivation because Korea has been relatively quiet on "Dokdo" lately, which I think is a good thing. It seems like Japan and Korea have been trying to improve relations, so it did not seem like the right atmosphere to talk about the Dokdo-Takeshima dispute.

Anyway, my school has recently told me they will not be renewing my contract next year, so I feel more comfortable about getting back into the debate. However, I wonder if anyone is still interested? It seems like the debate has died down in both Korea and Japan, for whatever reason. Are Japanese still interested in the debate?

5 comments:

  1. Hi Gerry,

    It's good to hear from you again. We are still interested in the issue, of course. The President 李明博 seems to be trying not to touch the Takeshima issue for the good relationship with Japan but in my opinion we should talk about it for the true friendship of the two countries.

    BTW, the man in the video is only talking about 日省録 which showed that 千山島 (he mistakingly said 千山島 instead of Usando) was Jukdo, not today's Takeshima (Liancourt Rocks). He also said that it is the Korean document and was discovered by Gerry Beevers, a foreign scholar.

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  2. Thanks, Pacifist.

    I know that people like you, Kaneganese, and GTOMR are still interested in the Takeshima dispute, but what about the Japanese public, in general? Is it in the Japanese news much these days? Are Japanese still discussing it on Japanese Web sites?

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  3. @Gerry

    Always a pleasure to read your postings.

    The Japanese media has been largely quite silent as of late, even more silent then the Korean media has been this past while. I imagine, though, with the new DPJ government in power, when talks begin to focus on how to improve Japan-Asia relations, this dispute will play a definite role and, as anyone could expect, the right-wingers will get their panties in a twist again.

    I have not seen much in the news, the Japanese press did not even give too much coverage to the adverts being put out in the US by Korean patriot groups to "gather support" or whatever it is they think they are doing by posting big adverts saying that "Dokdo is Korean territory" in US cities (not criticizing their stance, only the effectiveness of such campaigning).

    The Japanese politics internet scene is, and always has been, fairly sporadic on the subject (just following the news cycle), but, as of late, the only real interest I can see in the subject are commentators of a quality equal to those posting comments on that Youtube video. Not exactly representative of any sort of general public interest. Just the undiluted internet rage of fairly deranged individuals looking to lash out for no particular reason.

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  4. Hi Jonathan,

    It's good to read comments from foreigners living in Japan, especially a fair and objective ones like yours.

    Gerry,

    Political situation in Japan is a mess right now, and DPJ, many of them are socialists, are going to take the next administration soon. Besides, Japanese media doesn't pick up Takeshima issue unless it's coming from Korea.

    But we are working kind of stealthy. Shimane Prefecture starts a new study group and is going to take this to the next stage.

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  5. Thanks, Jonathan. By the way, I agree that those bus and newspaper advertisements saying "Dokdo is our territory" are not very effective, especially when they add the "East Sea" to them. I think they just make Koreans look a little crazy. Korea already occupies the rocks, so it is silly for them to be making an issue of them.

    Kaneganese,

    Yes, in regard to Takeshima, the Japanese media seem to be much more reactive than proactive. In other words, it seems they generally just report on Takeshima news coming out of Korea rather than doing their own special reports on it. Of course, Koreans always seem to be doing silly "Dokdo" things to try to get in the news, whereas the Japanese do not seem to spend much time thinking about Takeshima.

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