“…Nevertheless, a pull-apart origin continues to be attributed to the Japan Sea because strikeslip faults at the extreme ends of the back-arc, in the Tsushima Strait and around Hokkaido, were known to be active around the time of opening (Fabbri et al, 1996;Fournier et al, 1994;Kikawa, et al, 1994;Yoon et al, 2014;Yoon and Chough, 1995). The most significant difficulty with the pullapart model involves paleomagnetic evidence for contrary rotations for the NE and SW Japan blocks during back-arc opening, which has since been confirmed in many studies (Baba et al, 2007;Hayashida et al, 1991;Hoshi and Matsubara, 1998;Hoshi et al, 2015;Otofuji, 1996;Otofuji et al, 1994;Takahashi and Saito, 1997;Tosha and Hamano, 1998;Yamaji et al, 1999). Simultaneous …”