Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol get down to business at a restaurant in Tokyo’s Ginza district in March. (Provided by the Cabinet Public Affairs Office)

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is planning to visit South Korea from May 7 to 8 to reciprocate one to Japan in March by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol that marked a thawing in soured ties between the Asian powerhouses.

Japanese officials are coordinating with their South Korean counterparts to build on the momentum created by the trip, according to several government sources.

In that meeting, Kishida and Yoon agreed to resume reciprocal trips that had not been held since December 2011.

After Yoon’s visit, discussions between bureaucrats of the two nations have focused primarily on trade and national security issues.

The last time a Japanese prime minister visited South Korea was in February 2018 when Shinzo Abe was in office.

Kishida has already invited Yoon to attend the May 19-21 Group of Seven summit planned for Hiroshima.

In a related development, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced April 28 that South Korea had been reinstated to the so-called white list of nations given preferential trade treatment by Japan.

South Korea was removed from that list in August 2019 as a retaliatory measure against a South Korean Supreme Court ruling ordering Japanese companies to pay compensation to wartime Korean laborers.

Yoon’s visit to Japan in March was made possible largely by the announcement by Seoul that it would set up a foundation to shoulder the cost of compensation for wartime laborers.

Japanese officials concluded after talks with South Korea that Seoul’s export control measures were satisfactory.

Exclusion from the white list meant separate approval was required before Japanese companies can export items that could be converted to military use.

(This article was written by Takumi Wakai and Taro Kotegawa.)