Japan refusing to correct disputed Olympic map
A giant Olympic rings monument is seen reflected in a window at Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo, Japan, May 12. EPA-Yonhap
Dokdo issue set to further deteriorate Korea-Japan ties
By Jung Da-min
Despite mounting criticism over its map for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics describing Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo as Japanese territory, Japan has made it clear that it has no intention to make any correction, claiming it is just a “geographical representation.”
Diplomatic observers say the reemergence of the longtime controversy over Dokdo is expected to further fray relations between Korea and Japan, which are already at their lowest ebb in decades over wartime history issues.
“The map on the website for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics is purely a geographical representation, and no political statement was intended in its creation,” the Olympic organizing committee told The Korea Times via email, indicating that it has no plan to correct it.
This was the committee's official answer to a question from The Korea Times on how it was going to respond to Seoul's strong calls to remove any reference to Korea's islands as Japanese territory on the Olympic website.
The issue was first raised in July 2019, when the government asked Japan to fix the map of the route of the Tokyo Olympic torch relay that also described Dokdo as its territory. The organizing committee has since revised the map and made Dokdo less visible, but it still shows the islets as part of Japan.
The organizing committee also said Korea's understanding on the matter was “inaccurate.”
“The map has not been modified,” it added.
This combined image shows the route of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay on the official website of the Games. The magnified image, right, shows that the map marks Dokdo as Japan's territory. Courtesy of Seo Kyung-duk
Making the situation worse, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is showing no signs of active arbitration in the matter.
Earlier, the IOC's press team told The Korea Times to discuss the matter with the Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee, taking flak for its failure to act as a mediator as an international sports organization, in contrast with its action on a similar issue raised between the countries before the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The Korean “Unification Flag” carried together by South and North Korean athletes for their joint entrance at the opening ceremony of the Winter Games depicted the Korean Peninsula including Dokdo, and the IOC asked Korea not to include the islands citing the protocol of maintaining political neutrality. The Koreas accepted the IOC's request.
“The Tokyo organizing committee's marking Dokdo on the map seems to be clearly intended, as it could have just avoided marking Dokdo at all, instead of making it less visible, if it wanted to avoid controversy over the matter of violating the Olympics spirit,” Nam Ki-jeong, a professor at Seoul National University's Institute for Japanese Studies, told The Korea Times.
“This matter needs to be dealt with not as a political one, but as a an issue of keeping the Olympics spirit.”
A poster made by the Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK) to criticize the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for contradictory decisions on the use of politically controversial images in Olympic promotions / From VANK's Facebook account
Korea-Japan ties
The issue is throwing cold water on the government's attempt to get strained relations with Japan back on track.
Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi sat down with each other, on the sidelines of the Group of Seven Foreign and Development Ministers' Meeting in the United Kingdom in May, for the first time since Chung took office in February and discussed measures to improve bilateral ties.
In addition, speculation has been rampant that President Moon Jae-in may meet with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the G7 Summit that will also be held in the U.K. later this month.
Yang Ki-ho, a professor at Sungkonghoe University, said, “As it would be the first Korea-Japan summit since the inauguration of Suga, it has to yield some outcomes if it is held.”
However, Yang added: “The timing may not be right at this moment when many complicated issues have already been accumulating such as Japan's plan to discharge water contaminated with radioactive materials into the ocean and the matter of compensating Korean survivors of wartime sexual slavery and forced labor.”
Meanwhile, potential candidates for the next presidential election slated for March 2022, including former Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun and former ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairman Lee Nak-yon have claimed that Seoul should consider an Olympic boycott unless Tokyo deletes Dokdo from the map.
On Thursday, 132 DPK lawmakers issued a statement condemning the organizing committee's dealing with the matter.
“The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea sees the Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee's marking of Dokdo as a Japanese territory on its official website as a clear violation of Korea's sovereignty over Dokdo and a violation of international law, as well as a historically regressive act,” the statement read. “We also strongly condemn Japan's provocative actions of introducing a political matter into the field of sports, which violates the spirit of the Olympics.”
In addition, the Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), a civic organization working to promote understanding of Korean culture and history online, has been staging protests to criticize the IOC for its inconsistent and contradictory decisions on the use of Dokdo in Olympic promotions by Korea and Japan.