Photo/Illutration Shohei Ohtani, center, responds in an interview after the Los Angeles Dodgers began spring training in Glendale, Arizona, on Feb. 9. (Kento Takahashi)

The leaders of Japan and South Korea may take a break from their meetings to watch Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani and his teammates open the season in Seoul next month, a government source said.

The government is coordinating a summit between Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on March 20.

The visit coincides with Major League Baseball's Opening Day, which South Korea will host for the first time.

Ohtani’s Dodgers, who also added star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the off-season, will play the San Diego Padres, who feature ace pitcher Yu Darvish and closer Yuki Matsui.

After more than a decade of hiatus, the two leaders agreed when they met in Tokyo in March 2023 to resume regular mutual visits to each other’s nations.

Kishida visited Seoul in May that year.

In the planned meeting, the two leaders are likely to discuss responses to North Korea’s accelerated nuclear and missile development programs while showing close Japan-South Korea ties.

Relations between the two countries have rapidly improved after Seoul announced a “solution” to the long-standing issue of wartime labor in March last year.

The planned meeting will be the first since the two leaders met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco in November.

However, with South Korea’s general election approaching in April, the Yoon administration is facing some criticism for its positive stance on improving relations with Japan.

The Japanese government will make its final decision on a summit after assessing the political situation in South Korea.

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