From the Financial Times:
This is supposed to be Japan-South Korea friendship year, marking the 40th anniversary of normalised relations between the former colonial master and its subject. But on the streets of Seoul this week, Japan has been nothing but foe.
Years of trying to repair relations could be undone by a fiery dispute over a cluster of volcanic islands halfway between Japan’s Shimane prefecture and the South Korean port of Uljin.
Known as Dokdo to Koreans and Takeshima to Japanese, a dormant dispute over the islands’ ownership erupted this week when Shimane passed a law designating February 22 as “Takeshima Day” in recognition of the day in 1905 when the prefecture declared its ownership of the islands. Seoul says historical records show they are South Korean.