Legacies and Place Naming: Perspectives from Korea and Japan

Abstract

This chapter appraises the cartography-digitalization nexus in globalization processes, including Google’s power in place naming, alongside the geopolitics of emotions regarding toponymy and hydronyms in Japan-Korea relations. This reflects perceptions, territorialization(s), historical legacies, and claims to sovereignty, alongside aspirations for the future. Google’s rationale for selecting geographical names is reviewed as are alternatives from international institutions. Like analyses of historical maps, created in specific political time-slice contexts, many international associations were founded in the colonial era and (re)invented after the World Wars, presenting standpoints influencing international law. Inevitably, such holds embedded legacies and systemic perspectives. Complex post-colonial and post-WWII heritages continue to be shared by Japan and Korea; so disputed toponymies cannot be read in isolation from geopolitics and changing relations between neighbouring states in Northeast Asia including China.