TASAM | Legal Sanctions and Lawfare in the Sea of Japan Naming Dispu...

Legal Sanction and Emerging Tenets of Territorial Lawfare:

A Case Study of the Sea of Japan’s Nomenclature

The nomenclature “Sea of Japan“ has been a source of contention among South Korea, North Korea, and Japan. The dispute emanates over the accepted international name of the water body bordered by Japan, Korea (North and South) and Russia. While Japan advocates exclusively for use of the name “Sea of Japan“ ( 日本海 ), South Korea supports the alternative name “East Sea“ ( 동해 ), and the North Korean claim favors exclusive use of ʻKorean East Seaʼ or ʻEast Sea of Koreaʼ ( 조선동해 ).

While South Korea has been raising the allegation that the term “Sea of Japan“ was established when Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula, making it an ʻimperialistic termʼ that should be abolished, Japan counters this argument by asserting that the term “Sea of Japan“ was established before the colonization of the Korean Peninsula and so has no threads binding it to imperialism. The genesis of this disputation can be traced back to 1992 when objections to the name “Sea of Japan“ were first raised by North Korea and South Korea at the Sixth United Nations (UN) Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. In 1992, South Korea put claim to the name ʻEast Seaʼ during its participation in this UN Conference. While the United Nations has never directly addressed the issue of establishing an official standardized name for the sea, several resolutions and statements by the UN have had relevance to the topic. Japan joined the United Nations in 1956, while South and North Korea both joined it in 1991.

In 1977, the Third UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names (UNCSGN) adopted Resolution III/20, entitled “Names of Features beyond a Single Sovereignty.“ The resolution recommended that, when countries sharing a given geographical feature do not agree on a common name, it should be a general rule of cartography that the names used by each of the countries concerned be accepted. A policy of accepting only one or some of such names while excluding the rest would be inconsistent as well as inexpedient in practice. As with the International Hydrographic Organizationʼs (IHO) Technical Resolution A.4.2.6, Japan and South Korea disagree about whether this policy applies to the Sea of Japan. In April 2004, the United Nations affirmed in a written document to the Japanese government that it will continue using the name “Sea of Japan“ in all its official documents stating “The use of an appellation by the Secretariat based on the practice is without prejudice to any negotiations or agreements between the interested parties and should not be interpreted as advocating or endorsing any partyʼs position, and can in no way be invoked by any party in support of a particular position in the matter.

It has been observed that international maps and documents predominantly use the name “Sea of Japan“ (or its equivalent translation). Alternatively, both “Sea of Japan“ and ʻEast Seaʼ are used, with ʻEast Seaʼ listed in parentheses (marked as a secondary name). Geographically speaking, the marginal “Sea of Japan“ is separated from the Pacific Ocean by the Japanese archipelago. In November 2006, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hanoi, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun informally proposed to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe that the sea in question instead be called the ʻSea of Peaceʼ or ʻSea of Friendshipʼ– a proposal that was rejected nearly instantaneously by Abe. Subsequently, in January 2007, Japanʼs Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki opposed the idea on record, arguing that there was no need to change the name of the Sea of Japan.

As per the International Hydrographic Organization, the principal governing body for the naming of water bodies around the world, it was decided in 2012 that the 1953 version of its publication S–23–Limits of Oceans and Seas, which includes only the single name “Sea of Japan“ will remain, and has not been revised. In fact, Limits of Oceans and Seas has consistently used

the name “Sea of Japan“ (or ʻJapan Seaʼ) as the name for the concerned sea area since its first published edition in 1928. Japan did not participate in the process of the establishment of this name. In addition, Japan did not undertake any kind of demarche to have the name “Sea of Japan“ put in the first edition of Limits of Oceans and Seas. Japanʼs delegation made the following remark which was recorded in the minutes of the first Supplementary International Hydrographic Conference in April 1929:

Japanese Delegates had objected to the proposal submitted to the previous Conference of 1926, since it was rather a political and diplomatic question and exceed the scope of the Conference. Nevertheless, the Japanese Delegation was in favor of a delimitation of the seas after due study of the problem in accordance with the guiding principles laid down by the Bureau.

What emerged is that, if Japan had any intention to actively propagate the name “Sea of Japan“ (or ʻJapan Seaʼ) worldwide, it would not have had any concern about the political and diplomatic problems regarding the names and limits of seas as such, nor objected even temporarily to a proposal to prepare guidelines.