The Foreign Ministry’s 2016 Diplomatic Bluebook released Friday calls South Korea the nation’s most important neighboring country that shares strategic interests, an upgrade in phrasing from last year clearly based on December’s historic agreement on the “comfort women” issue.
The 2015 bluebook only said “Japan and the Republic of Korea are the most important neighboring countries to each other.”
Unable to view this article?
This could be due to a conflict with your ad-blocking or security software.
Please add japantimes.co.jp and piano.io to your list of allowed sites.
If this does not resolve the issue or you are unable to add the domains to your allowlist, please see this support page.
We humbly apologize for the inconvenience.
In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.
By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.