Research projects

I have published a series of documents related with the normalization between Japan and Korea from the publishing company of GendaiShiryo Shuppan. This series will be continued even after the project ended, following the schedule of the publishing company. Also two of the project members and I edited two volumes of the monograph, entitled 'The normalization between Japan and Korea as a history,' to be soon published by Hosei University Press with assistance of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Then, in January 2010, I organized a public symposium entitled "Modern Historical Meanings of the Normalization between Japan and Korea," with generous assistance of the Asahi and Toa Ilbo newspaper companies. Its aim was to propagate the accomplishments of our project in the context of contemporary public concerns, including the process of normalization between North Korea and Japan in 2010. Finally, I organized two panels at the annual conventions of academic associations : Japan International Studies' Association in Tsukuba in 2008 and Association for Asian Studies in Chicago in 2009 (together with Korean project members), with an aim to receive feedback from other scholars in the related academic fields.

In the past several years, China has emerged as a geopolitical challenger and regional order in East Asia has been undergoing a restructuring period. In this study, we clarified how China and North Korean diplomacy underwent changes and, how these changes influenced their relationship. We analyzed the changes in relations among China-North Korea, China-South Korea, Japan-South Korea, Japan-North Korea and the whereabouts of North Korean politics, economy and military system, centering on U.S-China relation. For this research, we put a priority on historical approach and collected new historical materials through multiple overseas investigations. We have also conducted exchanges of views with Chinese, American and South Korean experts to fill the blank area that historical materials could not tell us. Our research network will be helpful to overcome these difficulties and will also be a foundation for subsequent research.

This project's main issue is to argue the framework for the East Asian regional history around 1970's, by which we can recognize this region as a region. Official Documents have been researched, while big symposiums were held almost every year, which have been formalized as a shuttle academic conference of East Asia by the contemporary Korean Studies center in Tokyo University, Asiatic Research center in Korea university and the Department of International Relations in Tsinghua University, China. A set of seven plus 5 volumes of reprinting official documents on Korea- Japan relations in 1960's was published, which was followed by another set of 5 volumes repringting. Through these events 1970's history with governments and civil asociations intertwined came to be argued internationally in East Asian framework with transnational academic networks constructed and appealed to general.