Kristian Magnus Hauken finished his dual degree Ph.D. at the University of Sheffield, School of East Asian Studies and Tōhoku University, Graduate School of Law in 2020. His research interests include Japanese foreign relations and domestic sources of change in Japan’s foreign policy, as well as sources of status, prestige and stigma in international relations. Kristian is currently employed as a teaching associate in East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield, School of East Asian studies, where he is teaching mainly postgraduate students in topics relating to the political economy and international relations of East Asia. His current research focuses on how practices, norms and capabilities generate or detract from social standing in international society, with a geographic focus on North-East Asia.

This talk takes the premise that just as individual human beings, states experience social stigma, that in turn affect their behaviour within the international system. Taking the ‘comfort women’ issue as a starting point, I argue that a leading cause for the change in the diplomatic stance of Japan in the ‘comfort women’ issue is the relative success of one conception of national stigma within the Japanese political establishment. This talk explores how specific politicians in Japan have been able to have their own views on this fraught historical issue crystallise into increasingly more accepted Japanese foreign policy, especially in the Japanese-Korean relationship.