This research compares the policy responses of South Korea and Taiwan in regard to their respective trade imbalances with Japan and explains how social factors such as economic policy ideas as a social belief system, the socially constructed strategic meaning of economic relations with Japan and differing social perception, affect on Korea-Japan and Japan-Taiwan economic relations. The material conditions of a trade deficit that results from Japan-depended development are similar, yet the policy responses of Korea and Taiwan toward Japan are different. The Korean government conducted a competitive re-balancing policies to suppress and to substitute imports from Japan. However the Taiwanese government has promoted a collaborative re-balancing policy to establishing joint ventures and to attract investment by Japanese companies. This research argues the economic policies of Korea and Taiwan toward Japan is not a result of economic rationality but rather it is socially constructed and its explanation lies in the specificity of economic relations in East Asia.