Public Policy Preferences and Political Distrust in Korea-Japan Relations

This study aims to identify the complex political structure of South Korea-Japan relations and domestic politics, focusing on the gap between government policy responses and public policy preferences. It presents an analytical framework using political system theory, and also uses data from public opinion polls conducted by the East Asian Institute (EAI) and Genron NPO from 2013 to 2023, a period of dynamics in Korea-Japan relations characterised by confrontation and improvement. The results are as follows. First, there is a gap between Korean attitudes towards Japan and government policies. And neither the conservative nor the liberal governments are dominated by policy performance. Second, Japanese attitudes towards Korea are indifferent and distrustful of politics, and the government’s performance evaluation is also unclear. Third, political trust is low in both Japan and Korea, and there is distrust of each other’s policies. In short, the mechanism of bilateral confrontation is a structural result of the synergistic effects of domestic distrust of the political process and distrust of the other country.