Young Japanese and South Koreans have deepened exchanges since their two countries agreed on a future-oriented partnership a quarter of a century ago, but differences in historical perceptions remain a sensitive issue.

The Japan-South Korea Joint Declaration, subtitled “new Japan-South Korea partnership toward the 21st century,” was signed in Tokyo by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung on Oct. 8, 1998.

Obuchi expressed “feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology” for Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945.

In response, Kim called for making efforts to develop a future-oriented relationship.

The two countries drew up a 43-point action plan to expand exchanges in broad areas, such as politics, economy and culture, which lays the groundwork for advances in bilateral relations.

Hayate Sasaki, a university senior, was attending a booth set up by the Japan Korea Students Future Forum for the Japan-South Korea Exchange Festival held in Komazawa Olympic Park in Tokyo on Sept. 30.

The forum, where students from Japan and South Korea discuss plans to promote bilateral exchanges, was formed in 2006.

Sasaki, who joined a five-day program held in South Korea in 2019 when he was a third-year high school student, has been engaged in the forum’s activities in his university years.

“Unless people from the two countries make friends with each other, they cannot have cool-headed discussions on history issues,” said Sasaki, 22.

Lee Moa, an advertising agency employee in Seoul, spent about one year in Japan on a working holiday program from 2014, when she was a university student majoring in Japanese.

The program, one of the measures included in the joint declaration to expand exchanges among younger generations, started in 1999.

Lee brought to Japan about 250,000 yen ($1,680), all the money she had at the time, and worked at a souvenir shop and a yakitori grilled-chicken restaurant.

“I was most happy in my life when I lived in Japan,” said Lee, now 32. “I gained invaluable experiences and friends there.”

Lee, who is in charge of the Japanese market at the agency, said, “The working holiday program has enhanced my relationship with Japan and enriched my life.”

Historian Nobuhiro Katsurajima, a professor emeritus at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, organized a program in which students from Ritsumeikan, a South Korean university and a Chinese university study language, culture and history on each other’s campus every year.

“Unlike politics, interpersonal exchanges are irreversible,” Katsurajima said. “(People in Japan and South Korea) have steadily cultivated a growing number of face-to-face relationships over the past 25 years.”

Still, different historical perceptions remain a roadblock.

The joint declaration emphasized the importance of “deep mutual understanding and diverse exchanges between people of the two countries” as a basis for advancing relationships.

Moe Kasugai, who heads a company in Seoul to help South Korean students find employment with Japanese companies, said she believes that mutual understanding means people from the two countries understand and respect each other’s stance on history and other issues.

But Japanese and South Koreans have not yet developed such mature relationships, she said.

Kasugai, 32, vividly remembers an episode she encountered soon after she entered Yonsei University in Seoul in 2011.

She suggested during a class that Japan should consider education that fosters patriotism to make Japanese more interested in their nation’s future.

But a South Korean student reacted angrily after the class, asking, “Are you saying that an aggressor nation should introduce patriotic education?”

Kasugai said she does not know how the two countries can achieve mutual understanding. They can only try to continue increasing movements and communications at the grass-roots level, she said.

Kim Kyungmook, a professor at Waseda University’s Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences, said: “Everyone has his or her own position, such as students and company employees. In the context of Japan-South Korea relationships, the first step toward mutual understanding is to imagine those different positions among people in the other country.”