[Global Column] The Tokyo Olympics and Korea-Japan Relations

The Tokyo Olympics, postponed for a year due to the global spread of COVID-19, opened on July 23 and closed on August 8. An unprecedented situation occurred where the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were held in 2021 due to COVID-19, and concerns about the spread of the virus persisted during the Olympics, leading to some events being held without spectators.

Although the Olympics, which shone with the sweat of athletes from around the world, have ended, this Tokyo Olympics also served as an opportunity to highlight important diplomatic challenges currently faced by South Korea.

Article 50 of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Charter strictly prohibits political agitation. Additionally, ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, IOC President Thomas Bach emphasized that athletes participating in the Olympics have "an important duty to respect political neutrality."

Nevertheless, the Olympics have often been used for political purposes. The 1980 Moscow Olympics and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics were held as half-hearted games due to political conflicts during the Cold War. Furthermore, the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics were used as an opportunity to resume political dialogue between South and North Korea.

The Tokyo Olympics were not based solely on pure sportsmanship either. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sought to use the Tokyo Olympics as an opportunity to regain Japan’s international status. After winning the general election for the House of Representatives in December 2012, Abe clearly stated his goal of expanding Japan’s international standing and role in a speech at the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies in February 2013, declaring that "Japan has returned." For Abe, the Tokyo Olympics likely appeared as a chance to restore Japan’s international stature, which had plummeted following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

In fact, Abe actively expressed this intention by performing a Super Mario act at the 2016 Rio Olympics. However, as COVID-19 spread worldwide in 2020, the year the Tokyo Olympics were scheduled to be held, the Games were postponed, and Abe resigned in August 2020. Thus, Abe’s goal of reestablishing Japan’s international status through the Olympics was not realized.

Instead, political conflicts within Japan over hosting the Tokyo Olympics intensified, leading Abe to not attend the opening ceremony, and support for the current Suga Yoshihide Liberal Democratic Party cabinet fell below 30%. Therefore, there is a high possibility that Japan’s foreign strategy will undergo significant changes following the Tokyo Olympics.

Moreover, the South Korean government sought to use the Tokyo Olympics as an opportunity to normalize Korea-Japan relations. President Moon Jae-in planned to visit Japan to hold a summit with Prime Minister Suga coinciding with the Olympics opening ceremony. However, the visit was ultimately canceled after Hirohisa Soma, the Japanese Ambassador to South Korea, used insulting language about President Moon in a media interview.

The continuation of uncomfortable Korea-Japan relations like this will pose a serious diplomatic burden for South Korea in the future. However, the Tokyo Olympics made it clear that normalizing Korea-Japan relations will be a challenging task. Therefore, how to redefine Korea-Japan relations in line with changes in Japan’s domestic politics and foreign strategy is a significant diplomatic challenge left by the Tokyo Olympics.

Jae-Hwan Jung, Professor of International Relations, University of Ulsan