The Kishi Effect: A Political Genealogy of Japan-ROK Relations

The severe deterioration in South Korea-Japan relations under Abe Shinzo and Park Geun-hye seems paradoxical given that Abe’s grandfather, Kishi Nobusuke, and Park’s father, Park Chung-hee, were “close friends” who helped forge Japan-South Korea normalization in 1965. However, Abe and Park are better understood as operating within the nationalist conservative logic that brought their families together but now drives their countries apart.