South Korea and Japan are seeking rapprochement now that support vs no longer speaks automatically

“For the first time since we have normalized the diplomatic ties, in 1965, a South Korean President Japan chose the first destination for a foreign visit,” says South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung today proudly for a press conference.

He is in Tokyo this weekend for consultation with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. “We reject every attempt to undermine the status quo in the region,” said Ishiba, who explicitly handed his South Korean colleague.

At first glance, Lee’s visit to Tokyo seems only a bilateral consultation between two neighboring countries. Yet there is a lot at stake: the balance of power in East Asia, the crumbling credibility of American security guarantees to his two greatest allies in the region and the question of how democratic allies deal with the militarily increasingly assertive China.

The visit is not only remarkable for these reasons. The new South Korean president breaks with tradition and chooses not to go to Washington on his first trip, but to Japan. The relationship with that country has long been tense, but it indicates how important the cooperation between the two countries has become. Only then does Lee travel to the US for a meeting with US President Trump.

Comfort girls

The relationship between Tokyo and Seoul has been hostage for decades by the legacy of the Japanese colonial domination between 1910-1945. Historical disputes around the forced labor of hundreds of thousands of Koreans and the systematic compulsory prostitution under the authority of the Japanese army still presses heavily on the relationship between the two countries.

In the past they both made multiple attempts to reconciliation. In 2015 recognized the then Japanese minister Kishida The forced prostitution as “a serious attack of the Worth-Koretanthe bye-one” Real payment fund on.

Nevertheless, the same dispute led to a Trade War . Only since 2021 under President Yoon Suk-Yeol and Kishida, who has since climbed into prime minister, was there cautious recovery. Japan once again publicly recognized the suffering of the victims, while Yoon chose cooperation, despite strong resistance.

Pragmatic approach

That thaw is now being continued by the South Korean Lee, even though he was a pronounced critic of Japan in the past. During his presidential campaign, he considerably moderated his tone and argued for a “pragmatic and national importance”. It was an attempt to profile himself as a driven statesman.

For Japanese Premier Ishiba, the meeting also offers a chance to profile itself as a statesman. His position is uncertain because of his struggling popularity and a on the crumbling . The President demands that they are going to pay more for the American presence in the region. And even though the countries already give billions out for the military presence of the US, Trump still regularly turns threatening language towards the allies.

Also in Beijing the meeting in Japan is followed with great interest. For China, the reinforced collaboration is uncomfortable, because Beijing also tries the collaboration with South Korea and Japan