The Japanese Embassy in Washington signed a $75,000 contract recently with a major U.S. public affairs firm in a bid to kill a legislation on the use of the "East Sea" name, according to a related document.
Yonhap News Agency on Sunday obtained the four-page contract signed in mid-December between the embassy and McGuireWoods Consulting LLC (MWC). It details the company's strategy to block a legislative move in the U.S. state of Virginia on identifying the body of waters between Korea and Japan.
The legislation would require local school textbooks to name it the East Sea as well as the Sea of Japan.
MWC is developing "white papers and talking points on why the 'East Sea' proposal is bad public policy," reads the document from the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) database of the U.S. Department of Justice.
The firm, which has several offices in Virginia, is also tasked with finding individuals, experts and media outlets to support the current policy of using the Japanese-version name alone.
It also promised to contact senior state legislators and especially target the new Virginia governor, Terry McAuliffe, who has the power to veto legislative measures.
While McAuliffe is supportive of the "East Sea" initiative, he is believed to be "persuadable," MWC said.
"The governor is theoretically the last stop gap in the legislative process, who would be asked to veto the bill should it pass both chambers of the General Assembly," it added.
The Japanese Embassy agreed to pay the company $25,000 a month from December to February. It would pay more if needed for lobbying in March or a "veto session."
Japan's hiring of the U.S. firm was previously reported by media, but the document discloses its specific game plan.
Koreans believe it does not make sense to call the waters east of the peninsula the Sea of Japan. They say it is just a relic of Japan's colonization of Korea from 1910-45.
A group of Korean-Americans in Virginia has spearheaded a campaign to publicize the East Sea name. It led some local legislators to sponsor bills on adding the East Sea to new school textbooks.
The Virginia Senate already passed the legislation. The House of Delegates is working on it. (Yonhap)
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