This study investigates the causes of Japan's failure to reconcile the matter of South Korean “comfort women” from World War II. It draws on reconciliation theory to determine the cause of failure by Japan. After a review of the literature on this issue with an emphasis on its history, the effect of Japan's problem‐solving attempts, and the backlash after the 2015 “comfort women” agreement, we call attention to Japan's weak civil society and its distortion of history in textbooks as internal causes of this failure. Moreover, we highlight the US–ROK–Japan trilateral security cooperation as an external cause of the deterioration of the reconciliation attempts. We conclude by noting that internal and external factors have made it more difficult for Japan to reconcile the matter of South Korean “comfort women.”

中文翻译：

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日本在战后与韩国有关的外交政策

这项研究调查了日本未能调和第二次世界大战中韩国“慰安妇”问题的原因。它使用和解理论来确定日本的失败原因。在回顾有关该问题的文献，重点是其历史，日本解决问题的尝试的影响以及2015年“慰安妇”协定后的强烈反对之后，我们提请注意日本的公民社会薄弱及其历史的扭曲在教科书中是导致此失败的内部原因。此外，我们强调美韩日三边安全合作是和解企图恶化的外部原因。最后，我们指出，内部和外部因素使日本更难以调和韩国的“慰安妇”问题。