While Taro Aso's public statements as foreign minister have done little to help ease tensions between Tokyo and the rest of Asia, a family connection to wartime forced labor has raised further questions over his ability to oversee good relations with Japan's neighbors.
During World War II, the Aso family's mining company used thousands of Koreans as forced laborers.
The legacy of Koreans, Chinese and other Asians being forced into slave-like working conditions across the region during the war, has become an issue in Tokyo's maintenance of normal diplomatic relations with its neighbors.