The weekend visit to Tokyo by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung for talks with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has highlighted the neighbors’ desire to put their historical baggage behind them and focus on economic and security cooperation — especially as both look to manage relations with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
In a symbol of this, Lee on Saturday made Japan his first destination abroad as leader — the first time a South Korean president has visited Japan before the United States, the two Asian nations’ mutual ally, since Tokyo and Seoul normalized diplomatic ties in 1965.
Following wide-ranging talks later in the day, the two leaders agreed that Japan and South Korea must work “as partners” to address “various challenges facing the international community” in order to advance “future-oriented and mutually beneficial common interests,” according to a joint statement — the countries’ first in 17 years.
In remarks at the outset of their meeting, Ishiba lauded Lee’s decision to make Japan his first stop abroad.
In their talks, they also signaled that shuttle diplomacy, or mutual visits by the two countries' leaders, would continue unabated under their respective administrations.
”Peace and stability are not to be taken for granted, they won’t happen if you don’t make a proactive effort,” Ishiba said. “A positive relationship between our two countries is not only beneficial to our nations, but also to the entire region.”
For his part, Lee noted the challenges the two countries continue to face, but underlined the importance of strengthening bilateral ties, especially under the current shifting geopolitical environment.
“We have many things in common, and there are many areas where we can cooperate. At the same time our proximity means that there are also aspects where we have conflicts,” Lee said.
“Difficult issues should be treated as such,” he added. “If an issue is extremely difficult to resolve, it is important to take time to engage in dialogue while cooperating in areas where collaboration is possible.”
Referring to Ishiba’s interest in regional revitalization, Lee invited his Japanese counterpart to a visit to rural South Korea, striking a noticeably friendly tone.
“This is only our second meeting, and I feel as if we are very close friends,” Lee said.
The talks were rich in symbolism, coming on the 80th anniversary of the end of imperial Japan’s brutal 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and the 60th anniversary of the neighbors’ establishment of diplomatic ties.
After their meeting, the two leaders sought to spotlight that, after years of acrimony, their countries’ had crafted a solid relationship that could be further built upon.
“Based on the foundation built since the normalization of diplomatic relations in 1965, I have agreed with the president to steadily develop Japan-South Korea relations under the current positive momentum,” Ishiba told reporters.
Lee echoed this sentiment, saying that South Korea and Japan are “optimal partners” that can cooperate in a variety of fields in ways that are beneficial to each other.
Although the meeting was scant on concrete deliverables — the pair reached a deal on a plan to allow young people to obtain working holiday visas twice, instead of just once under the current system, while also agreeing to set up a framework for dialogue on depopulation, declining regional economies and natural disasters — the talks largely cleared away Japanese concerns that relations could be in for a bumpy ride.
Ahead of his arrival, the South Korean leader said in a written interview published Saturday with several Japanese newspapers that agreements on contentious historical issues reached with Japan by prior administrations “cannot be overturned.”
He said that while the issues of Korean wartime laborers at Japanese factories and mines, as well as “comfort women,” who suffered under Japan’s military brothel system before and during World War II, continue to stir anger and resentment in South Korea, "trust between nations and policy consistency are extremely important."
The comments were seen as indicating his intention to maintain the agreements and solutions reached by prior South Korean administrations.
In 2015, Japan and South Korea reached an agreement that “resolved finally and irreversibly” the issue of comfort women. This deal, however, unraveled in the ensuing years, following tit-for-tat moves. On wartime labor, South Korea announced a plan in March 2023 to resolve the issue via a third-party payment system, a move that helped pave the way for the current improved relationship.
But the June election of Lee — who had been known for his hard-line views on Japan — raised concerns in Tokyo that the thaw in bilateral ties and trilateral military cooperation with the United States might be reversed under his administration.
However, more than 2½ months since he took office, Lee has done little to signal interest in scuttling the agreements or putting a damper on the relationship, with the South Korean leader even expressing a desire to further cement improved ties.
In Saturday's interview, Lee for the second time in days voiced praise for a key joint declaration issued by the two countries nearly 30 years ago, and expressed his desire to draft a new joint statement during his term in office.
Signed in Tokyo in 1998 by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, the joint statement is widely seen as having laid the groundwork for the future of ties. It saw Obuchi express “deep remorse and heartfelt apology” for Japan's colonial rule, while Kim called on the neighbors “to overcome their unfortunate history and to build a future-oriented relationship.”
In their joint statement Saturday, Ishiba also pledged to uphold the positions of previous Cabinets on historical issues, making special note of the 1998 declaration.
For Tokyo, one crucial outcome of the meeting was to confirm that Lee has put his history of anti-Japan views in the rearview mirror as the neighbors look to continue to bury the hatchet in the face of a number of common challenges.
Ramon Pacheco Pardo, an expert on South Korea and a professor at King's College London, said that the momentum for improved ties appeared sustainable.
“I think that both Japan and South Korea decided a few years ago that they needed to prioritize cooperation over historical grievances,” Pacheco Pardo said, adding that both countries believe they need to work with each other to navigate an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape that includes Trump, Sino-American competition, China's rising assertiveness and the challenge of China-North Korea-Russia cooperation.
Pacheco Pardo said the caveat to this cooperation was that the historical baggage between Japan and South Korea would remain looming in the background.
“I don't think that historical grievances will ever be fully solved, but they can certainly be managed,” he said.
Still, ties could be tested sooner than later if calls for Ishiba to quit from within his ruling Liberal Democratic Party ultimately force him to resign. Such a scenario, observers say, could result in a more conservative replacement who is less willing to compromise on historical issues.
Beyond bilateral ties, the two leaders also discussed North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile arsenal, as well as its close military cooperation with Russia in its war in Ukraine, reaffirming their strong commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Ishiba and Lee also emphasized the importance of resolving the nuclear issue “through dialogue and diplomacy” — a hint that the pair might support a resumption of talks between Trump and North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un.
Ostensibly their ally, Trump and his unprecedented economic and security policies have also presented the two leaders with a common challenge.
Under his administration, Washington has reached separate trade agreements with the allies that, while shielding their economies from Trump’s highest tariffs, still saw them slapped with 15% “reciprocal” duties that are expected to dent key sectors of their economies.
Japan and South Korea are also trying to fend off Trump’s transactional approach to Washington’s military alliances with the countries, a stance that has seen his administration demand both ramp up defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product.
Although there were no conspicuous mentions of trade and defense spending to come out of Saturday’s meeting, Ishiba and Lee — who was due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday — were likely to have shared notes on how best to respond to the moves by Trump, experts said.
In this sense, Pacheco Pardo called Lee’s decision to visit Japan before the U.S. “very meaningful.”
“In my view, this shows that Seoul and Tokyo understand that working together will help both of them deal with the Trump administration,” he said.
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