Handbook of Japan-Korea Relations

This Handbook examines relations between Japan and Korea from 1850 to the present.

Analysing almost 200 years of Japan and Korea relations uncovers a relationship that has been both congenial and confrontational. This Handbook examines these relations in this age of modernity by dividing it into four periods: precolonial relations (1850–1905); colonial rule; (1905–1945) postwar/post-liberation (1945–1965); and the modern period (1965–present). With contributions from an international team of experts, the themes of confrontation and cooperation run throughout the book, with chapters focusing on key aspects such as influences from international powers, the era of Japanese colonization, Japan’s relations with the two Koreas and nationalism and historical revisionism.

As a comprehensive overview of diplomatic and cultural conflicts and co-operations between Japan and Korea in the modern era, this Handbook will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of Korean and Japanese history, politics, culture and international relations.

Mark E. Caprio is professor emeritus at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, Japan. Currently he is serving as the Kim Koo Visiting Professor at Harvard University.

Robert Winstanley-Chesters has been an AKS Teaching and Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and, in 2025, a Kyujanggak Fellow at SNU’s Kyujanggak ICKS.