Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, fourth from right, is handed a letter from South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol delivered by a visiting delegation member. (Provided by Cabinet Public Affairs Office)

The inauguration of South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol next month will offer an ideal opportunity for Tokyo to thaw its strained relationship with Seoul.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida should attend the ceremony to show his eagerness to revive bilateral ties by working together with Yoon.

Kishida on April 26 met in Tokyo with a South Korean delegation of diplomatic advisers and others sent by the president-elect and reportedly bearing a private message from the latter to Kishida.

Yoon has repeatedly called for improved bilateral relations. Even before before winning the election, this was his mantra.

The mutual exchange “Japan-South Korea shuttle diplomacy” by the two nations’ leaders has remained dormant for more than a decade.

South Korea’s ambassador to Japan, who assumed his post more than a year ago, has so far been unable to meet not only the Japanese prime minister, but the foreign minister as well.

Both Tokyo and Seoul bear a heavy responsibility to rectify this abnormal situation.

Although Seoul has not made this official, it wants Kishida to attend Yoon’s inauguration, so as to highlight the new administration’s difference from the outgoing Moon Jae-in administration.

When Junichiro Koizumi and Yasuo Fukuda served as prime ministers they attended South Korean presidential inaugurations with the aim of holding summit meetings without delay.

In light of the perilous state of bilateral issues over various pending issues, we strongly hope Yoon and Kishida will seize their chance to meet for the first time “as a matter of course” and activate dialogue.

But objections to this have been raised within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and the Foreign Ministry is also being cautious.

One of their main concerns is the possibility that the assets of Japanese corporations, ordered by the South Korean Supreme Court to pay compensation to wartime Korean laborers, will be converted into cash this summer.

With a Upper House election to be held this summer, Tokyo is concerned that a visit to South Korea by the prime minister could pose a high risk in the absence of progress in a long-standing dispute over issues of a historical nature.

In response to this problem, we hope Yoon will make it clear that he is not in favor of the liquidation of the assets, and that his foremost priority lies in resolving the matter diplomatically.

The history issue is a tough challenge that can cause a surge in nationalism on both sides. But that is precisely why mutual understanding on a popular level is indispensable, and it is the government’s responsibility to create the right environment to tackle such problems.

In its “Indo-Pacific Strategy” announced in February, the Biden administration in the United States called for stronger Japan-South Korea relations.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit South Korea prior to attending a Japan-U.S.-Australia summit in Tokyo next month, in the hope of coordinating the interests of Washington, Tokyo and Seoul ahead of the trilateral meeting.

The future of the U.S.-China conflict remains elusive. And with the Russian invasion of Ukraine added to the equation, the postwar global order has been badly shaken.

In the meantime, North Korea has staged yet another massive military parade, and its leader, Kim Jong-un, spoke of shoring up his reclusive nation’s nuclear development program.

Amid this chaotic global situation, the present era requires Japan and South Korea, which share values of liberalism, to normalize their diplomacy of dialogue and work together to deal with various regional challenges.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Apr. 27

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