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This paper contrasts agricultural protection of Japan and Korea with the West and identifies major differences between them. It characterizes agricultural protection of Japan and Korea (net heavy food importers) as "tariff-based and scarcity-sensitive" aimed at promoting survival and the West (net food exporters) as "subsidy-based and surplus-inducing" aimed at enhancing farm income. We then identify factors underlying the coevolution and divergence in the extent of agricultural trade liberalization between Japan and Korea since the launch of the Uruguay Round in 1986. Korea accepted deep cuts in agricultural tariffs in bilateral FTAs with the US and EU during the 2000s while Japan continued to protect farm interests by concluding low levels of FTAs with politically sensitive products excluded from tariff concessions. The two countries' stances reversed since 2013 with Japan becoming proactive in pursuing high levels of FTAs with major agricultural exporting countries and Korea decelerating its opening of agricultural markets. To explain such divergences, this paper develops a political economy framework in which the incumbent political leadership would consider both national interests and sectoral (farm as import competing industries and business/manufacturing as exporting industries) special interests. Our analysis shows that President Roh (2002–2007)'s embracing of neoliberal paradigm in formulating foreign trade policies that would promote national interests underlies the unprecedented level of agricultural trade liberalization in Korea during the 2000s, while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's determination not to be outcompeted by the rising China and Korea's ambitious FTA strategies underlies Japan's proactive bilateral and mega-FTA drives since 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-regional free trade agreements (FTAs) have flourished in East Asia since the late 1990s. Japan and Korea were at the forefront of this trend. Nevertheless, most policymakers' preferences orbited around region-oriented FTAs out of reluctance to make a sudden policy shift away from their conventional emphasis on World Trade Organization-based multilateral negotiations. The trend continued in Japan throughout the 2000s. In contrast, Korea took a sharp turn toward a cross-regional strategy in 2003. By the mid-2010s, this had created a significant gap in the two countries' overall FTA partner choices. What caused policymakers' ideas in the two countries to diverge from their initial focus on region-oriented FTAs? This paper focuses on the conditions that enabled policymakers' ideas to explain the divergence by developing the contextual‒dynamic framework of FTA policies. At the dynamic level, individuals are more likely to emerge with new ideas when their expertise comes from outside the decision-making body, accompanied by their social qualities and power. Contextual conditions should also be met: the trade policy environment should reciprocate agent-level qualities to create a supportive atmosphere for policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first public botanical garden of Korea, the Changgyeongwon Botanical Garden, was established for the purpose of promoting ‘taste’ in 1909 during the Japanese colonial period. This paper examines the concept of ‘taste’—‘shumi’ and ‘chwimi’—in order to show how the Changgyeongwon Botanical Garden played a role as a colonial botanical garden in Korea during the early twentieth century. At the end of the Meiji period, the concept of ‘shumi’ to acquire cultural improvement justified the Japanese authorities’ proposal to establish the botanical garden for the purpose of promoting ‘shumi’ and developing Japanese taste in Korea. In early twentieth-century Korea, the concept of ‘chwimi’ to develop knowledge, refinement and virtues, and the discussion on the roles of botanical gardens in improving ‘chwimi’, provided the foundation for the Changgyeongwon Botanical Garden to be acknowledged as a symbol of good taste or popular culture despite its Japanese colonial origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the internationalization of multinational corporations (MNCs) is mostly built on studies of North American and European firms. East Asian MNCs have been studied less, and commonly with reference to theories developed in Western countries. In this paper, we query the validity of these ‘Western’ internationalization models for East Asian firms through comparative case studies of representative Japanese and South Korean MNCs’ expansion into China. We find that the internationalization processes of leading East Asian MNCs match the predictions made by Western theories only partially. Furthermore, we find considerable differences between the internationalization of Japanese and South Korean firms, indicating both that East Asian MNCs follow diverse patterns of internationalization and that established Western models of internationalization evince limitations or weaknesses when applied to East Asian firms. Overall, the findings of this exploratory study illustrate the need for further, in-depth studies on the internationalization of East Asian MNCs which may result in the extensions of existing theories or even new theoretical frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collective memory inscribed in Korean history books recalls when the Japanese colonial state requisitioned brassware from Korean households during World War II. This study explores the complex mechanism behind these campaigns. Copper was a scarce commodity in the Japanese empire. The colonial brassware industry expanded but struggled due to fluctuating copper prices before the war. To overcome the reluctance of Koreans to part with their brassware, the colonial state had to coordinate various actors across multiple organisations, provide ceramic replacements, and establish a system of financial payments. The Japanese also ultimately created a 'brass bureaucracy' capable of carrying out the sensitive task of removing copper from Korean households. The Korean case reminds us that institutional frameworks are necessary for wartime salvage. Finally, brassware collections also resulted in fundamental changes in Korean society and everyday material culture that require careful analysis. (141 words) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the asymmetric and symmetric impacts of appreciation and depreciation in the Korean won on Korea's commodity trade balance with Japan. To this aim, the linear and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) models are applied. However, this study methodologically differs from previous empirical studies in the related literature applying the NARDL model. These previous studies are constructed based on only short-run and long-run symmetry (denoted by SS) and short-run and long-run asymmetry (denoted by AA). This study, however, also considers two other alternative cases as short-run asymmetry-long-run symmetry (denoted by AS) and short-run symmetry-long-run asymmetry (denoted by SA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider Korea and Japan in East Asia as the representative country of each of the two groups: high- versus low-depreciation economies during the 2008 global financial crisis. Although the two countries have geographical and industrial similarities, their exchange rate change during the crisis was notably opposite, and so were the macro-economic performances. Particularly, exchange rate and trade flows turned out to have played a major role in creating such differences. Exporting firms significantly outperformed the stock market in Korea, while underperforming in the Japanese stock market during the crisis. However, we could not find this pattern prior to the crisis. The difference caused by the exchange rate change, particularly in time of turmoil of the substantial economic recession and depreciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though very close geographically and culturally, postwar Japan and the Republic of Korea – both non-classical Western democracies – each experienced a very different democratization process and adopted a different kind of democratic regime. This is strongly expressed in the form of their judicial review mechanisms that are aimed in different ways at assisting citizens in encouraging the courts to review laws and policies. Given this backdrop, through the analysis of the attitudes of the Japanese and Korea's citizens to their judicial review mechanisms we search for civic attitudes in these societies. By doing so, we try to contribute to the great debate regarding the capability of non-Western societies that did not develop from a well-rooted liberal culture to adopt and internalize liberal-democratic values. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines a possible national culture difference in the moderating effect of leader–member exchange (LMX) on the relationship between person–organization (P–O) fit and work attitudes, including job satisfaction and organizational commitment, in Japan and Korea. Specifically, we use trait activation theory as a lens to explain the complementarities between P–O fit and LMX that may exert an influence on employees' work attitudes. We hypothesize that from the cross-cultural management perspective, such complementary effects would work in Japan where organizations encourage more decentralization and empowerment than those in Korea, which may enable supervisors in Japanese organizations to provide unambiguous reward expectancies for their immediate subordinates. Using samples of 138 Japanese and 144 Korean employees working for privately owned firms in Japan and Korea, we demonstrate that a significant three-way interaction of employees' P–O fit, LMX and a national culture difference (i.e. nationality) influences their work attitudes. Specifically, LMX moderated the positive relationships between P–O fit and both job satisfaction and organizational commitment for Japanese employees, tending to weaken them. For Korean employees, however, no such interactions were observed. The findings are used to discuss the applicability and generalizability of trait activation theory in East Asian cultures. In addition, suggestions are made regarding the discussion of HRM practices from a cross-vergence perspective. Limitations and directions for future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study compares the patterns of women's employment in four major Asian economies: China, India, Japan and South Korea. It illuminates how the heterogeneous characteristics of political regimes, institutional arrangements and societal values are manifested in the employment system and human resources of each country. It also reveals the varying cultural, social and institutional forces that prevail, despite similar outcomes of women's employment. The contribution adds to existing knowledge of women's employment through the comparison of four major Asian countries which remains under-explored. It also contributes to the theoretical debates of gender and employment by adopting an interdisciplinary analytical framework that incorporates socio-cultural, politico-economic and institutional perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been much discussion regarding the possible decline and weakening of national systems of human resource management (HRM). Yet, culture and institutions are often cited as the major stumbling blocks to this outcome. Such constraints may dissipate in the analysis, particularly if 'regional clusters' are considered where geographic and cultural closeness and 'openness' to similar economic pressures exist. In such cases, it might be postulated that convergence in HRM will occur. We argue that China, Japan and South Korea represent such a cluster. This article examines these countries, to see if a degree of convergence is taking place and if it is towards an identifiable 'Asian' model of HRM. A model of change is presented that distinguishes between levels of occurrence and acceptance. Details of the development and practice of HRM in each country are then set out. The article ends with a discussion and implications section and a brief conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]