Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin in Tokyo on Tuesday, as the two countries seek progress in resolving a long-festering row over compensation for wartime labor that has pushed the neighbors’ relationship to a fresh low.
While the meeting with Kishida was seen as a positive sign for friendlier relations between the two countries — both sides agreed to meet again if ties further improve — Kishida and Park appeared to assiduously avoid concrete discussion about wartime labor and other contentious issues during their brief 20-minute meeting, which the Japanese side referred to as a “courtesy call.”
Bilateral ties have been strained in recent years, in part because of the unresolved dispute over wartime labor compensation, and Park’s three-day visit that began Monday offered a rare chance to make some headway on the issue. It also came just over a week after Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party cruised to victory in a parliamentary election, giving him the political capital needed to pursue any thaw in ties with Seoul.