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Japan’s new submarine, the “Jingei” was launched on Oct. 12 at the Kobe Shipyard & Machinery Works of MHI. (UPI/Yonhap)

In response to North Korean missile tests and signs suggesting an imminent nuclear test, the administration of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has shared remarks over the past weeks stressing the importance of security cooperation with Japan.

The kind of security cooperation that he is emphasizing elicits polarized reactions among the South Korean public.

The “alliance of liberal democratic systems” in opposition to authoritarian regimes like those in North Korea, China, or Russia also represents a “pro-Japanese” course that aims to bring back Japanese influence on the Korean Peninsula.

For South and North Korea and other countries, the driving forces represented by Japan are twofold. This has to do with the geopolitical status that Japan inherently holds.

As an island nation off the far eastern end of the Eurasian continent, Japan occupies the geopolitical role of a “nest” for maritime forces as defined by Western geopolitics. It is the country that traditionally represents the “Outer Crescent” in the conception of Halford Mackinder, a pioneer in modern Western geopolitics, or a “Rimland” in the ideas of Nicholas Spykman, who laid the strategic groundwork for the Western maritime powers in the post-World War II era.

While Japan stands apart from the Eurasian continent’s rough currents of power that determine world hegemony, it's been able to stably take in the advanced culture that came with it. Above all, Japan has the advantageous position of having easy access to the seas.

In Asia, Japan holds a geopolitical position comparable to that of the UK in Europe. Since the Imjin War of the 15th century, Japan has competed shoulder to shoulder with China to become a major power in East Asia that determines the international situation.

Around the time that it unified in the 15th century, owing to its relative safe haven from invasions of Eurasian continental forces until then, Japan became the first in the region to come into contact with incoming Western maritime forces. Japan then grew to become the main player in terms of maritime power opposing the Eurasian continental forces.

The geopolitics of Japan are primarily based on the country’s nature as an archipelago. The Japanese archipelago, which lies separated from the Eurasian continent, measures a total area of 378,000 square kilometers, making the island nation’s size formidable. In fact, Japan is bigger than both the UK and Germany.

From the northernmost tip of Hokkaido to the southernmost tip of the Okinawa Islands, Japan hugs the Eurasian continent for 3,000 km from north to south. Japan’s geographical location alone means it has a direct influence all the way from Russia to China, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan and even the Philippines.

Of Japan’s four main islands, three-quarters of this area is mountainous. In fact, only 12% of Japan’s land is considered arable.

However, the mild and humid climate paired with fertile soil resulted in high agricultural yields. Arable land is mostly concentrated in the Kanto Plain near Tokyo, the Kinki (Kansai) Plain near Osaka, and the Nobi Plain near Nagoya.

These areas were the centers of both population and civilization. Dense populations located near fertile land in small areas resulted in efficient collectivization.

On the other hand, concentration and decentralization centered around these three regions were also carried out.

Although Japan was safe from Eurasian invasion until the 15th century, this time period also coincided with the Warring States period (Sengoku period 1467-1615) that saw fierce struggles for internal power take place throughout the nation.

It was only once Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified the country and with the establishment of a stable government, the Tokugawa shogunate, that the foundation was rapidly laid for a stable, modern nation-state unified racially, ethnically and linguistically.

Amid more efficient collectivization, Japan’s commerce was greatly boosted thanks to greater trade volumes gained through sea routes, compared to land routes, near the archipelago.

Japan's industrial potential, which was amassed during the Tokugawa shogunate, exploded as it allowed Western culture in with the opening of ports. In the end, Japan even rose to the level of competing with the US for supremacy in the Pacific.

Japan’s four tasks

Throughout this process, there have been four geopolitical tasks for Japan that have come up and been realized.

The first task is securing central power and internal unity in the mainland. The second is to secure sovereignty over the surrounding waters and islands. Third is acquiring security guarantees by controlling strategic access routes to mainland Japan.

In other words, Japan’s security can only be guaranteed by controlling not just the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan, but also the Sakhalin and northern islands. Fourth, military or trade power should be expanded abroad, such as in Siberia, China, and Southeast Asia, to secure necessary goods, resources, and labor.

While pursuing these geopolitical tasks after the Meiji Restoration, Japan then ended up embroiled in the Pacific War with the US and then eventually lost the war.

Still, Japan's geopolitical challenges did not disappear after the end of World War II. In fact, Japan continued to pursue these same tasks after the war peacefully and through economic means under the protection of the US security umbrella.

The US security umbrella provided to Japan during the post-war Cold War period guaranteed Japan's sovereignty over its original waters and surrounding islands and also guaranteed that both the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan would not be handed over to potential adversaries.

In particular, Japan was able to secure necessary resources, goods, and labor through US-controlled sea routes in a stable and cheap manner while also projecting its economic power to the world. This was the foundation for how Japan grew into the world's second-largest economy after the US.

However, with the dissolution of the socialist bloc and the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, Japan's pursuit of its four major geopolitical tasks was faced with a different environment.

First, Japan’s driving force of economic development and innovation had reached its limit. Since Japan’s economic bubble burst due to the US keeping Japan’s economy in check, low growth continued while national fiscal capacity also fell. In particular, aging and population decline have turned Japanese society into one in which growth and innovation have stagnated.

Second, with the rise of China and the relative weakness of the US, the US can no longer provide Japan with a stable security umbrella and it also no longer has any intention to do so.

In turn, if the US security umbrella becomes unstable, Japan will feel the temptation and even necessity to directly control the Korean Peninsula or Taiwan to make sure they won’t pose a threat to Japan’s security.

Unlike in the early 20th century, however, Japan’s ability to directly control the Korean Peninsula or Taiwan has decreased.

As such, Japan's current position and feelings create both opportunities and risks for the Korean Peninsula.

In the early 1990s, when the Cold War ended, Japan took the lead in promoting peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula by trying to become the first to establish diplomatic ties with North Korea.

However, with 30 years having passed since then, Japan has negatively affected the reconciliation process between the two Koreas, even hindering negotiations between North Korea and the US under the Donald Trump administration. What on earth happened during this time?

Only by knowing the answer to this is it possible to say whether or not there is any justification for Yoon’s calls for greater security cooperation with Japan.

By Jung E-gil, senior staff writer

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]