Can Japan and South Korea become friends with benefits?

With an aim to mend frayed relations, South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol is in Japan for a two-day bilateral summit. The meeting holds significance as it is the first official visit by a South Korean leader to Japan in over a decade. Just hours before the South Korean president meets Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday morning (16 March) – the fourth such launch in less than a year. Why do South Korea and Japan have fraught ties and why is Yoon’s visit an important step to improving relations? We explain. Tensions between South Korea and Japan The animosity between the two northeast Asian neighbours goes way back to before the Second World War. Japan colonised the Korean Peninsula from 1910 till 1945. Japanese soldiers sent hundreds of thousands of Koreans into forced labour, who had to toil in mines and factories. Tens of thousands of mostly Korean women and girls – euphemistically known as “comfort women” – were pushed into sexual slavery and had to work at Japanese military brothels, noted The Guardian. In 1965, Japan paid $800 million in reparations to South Korea’s government, reported Associated Press (AP). 

As per BBC, while these historical wounds are “no longer fresh” in South Korea, they are not “forgiven” either.

The two countries also have competing claims to Takeshima-Dokdo islands, which are governed by South Korea. [caption id=“attachment_12302532” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The ties between South Korea and Japan are fraught over the latter’s wartime actions. AP (Representational Image)[/caption] While Seoul and Tokyo tried to repair strained ties earlier, the official visits between the countries’ leaders ended in 2012 when the then South Korean president Lee Myung-bak visited the disputed set of islets in the sea between South Korea and Japan. The last time a South Korean president went to Japan for an official bilateral summit was in 2011 when Lee had asked his hosts to compensate the women forced into sexual slavery during the colonial rule. Tensions reached an all-time high in 2018 when South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered Japanese companies – Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries – to compensate their forced labour victims. But the companies refused the order, arguing that the issue was settled when South Korea and Japan established diplomatic relations in 1965, reported NPR. In what was seen as retaliation, in 2019, Japan imposed export controls on South Korea to limit the country’s access to chemicals used to make semiconductors, and displays used in mobiles and other high-tech devices, according to AP. During the presidency of Moon Jae-in, South Korea also scrapped its military intelligence-sharing agreement with Japan. Signs of thaw in relations The South Korean president’s visit to Tokyo has come days after his government announced the plan to compensate the forced labour victims through a public foundation funded by private Korean companies instead of asking Japanese companies for recompense. Kishida had welcomed the announcement as a sign of a “return to a healthy relationship between Japan and South Korea.” However, the plan has drawn criticism from various quarters in South Korea, including the Opposition. One Opposition leader called the deal the “biggest humiliation in our history”. Moreover, former forced labourers are also opposing the plan, saying they will not accept compensation from the foundation, as per NPR. [caption id=“attachment_12302672” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Protesters staged demonstrations in Seoul against South Korea and Japan’s summit. AP[/caption] As per recent polls, nearly 60 per cent of South Koreans were against the compensation deal, while 57 per cent of Japanese supported it. Before Yoon and Kishida meet later today, South Korean trade minister Lee Chang-yang said that Japan has agreed to lift the 2019 export controls. On the other hand, Seoul will withdraw its complaint to the World Trade Organization once the restrictions are removed, reported AP.  The South Korean president is expected to hold high-level talks on several issues with Japan’s prime minister. Yoon’s office has hailed the meet as “an important milestone” in the fraught ties between the two nations. The South Korean leader will also be treated by Kishida to his favourite dish omurice – fried rice enveloped in an omelette – at Rengatei, a 128-year-old restaurant in Tokyo. As per BBC, some media reports have described it as “going the extra-mile”, while some on social media dubbed it “Omurice diplomacy”. Kishida is also expected to reiterate Japan’s remorse over its wartime actions, as per AP. As per Japan’s Kyodo news agency, foreign and defence ministry officials are also likely to resume security discussions. Tokyo is also mulling inviting Yoon to visit Hiroshima in May as an observer at the Group of Seven (G7) summit which will be hosted by Japan, reported AP. Yoon's meeting with the Japanese prime minister will be a test of how well the two can mitigate public opinion about issues that have angered both nations. Some protesters gathered outside the presidential office in Seoul today to oppose the summit between South Korea and Japan leaders, reported AP.   “Ninety percent of Japan-South Korea relations are domestic politics,” Kunihiko Miyake, a former Japanese diplomat who is now a visiting professor at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, told NYT. “Therefore, nobody knows what’s going to happen.” Miyake said, adding that he was “still cautiously optimistic, but more optimistic than cautious.” Significance of the trip from a global perspective Before departing, Yoon told international media on Wednesday, “there is an increasing need for Korea and Japan to cooperate in this time of a polycrisis,” citing the nuclear and missile threat posed by North Korea and the disruption of global supply chains, reported CNN. “We cannot afford to waste time while leaving strained Korea-Japan relations unattended,” the South Korean president added. These attempts at reconciliation between the two Asian countries are important for the United States which wants both its allies to “get along” in order to combat the rise of China, noted NYT. The regional security threats posed by China and North Korea will be on the top agenda when the two leaders meet. Pyongyang is launching more ballistic missiles and it is feared that it will soon start testing nuclear weapons. As per BBC, China is also rapidly expanding in the region and its suspected military base project in the Solomon Islands has raised alarm in the US and among its allies in the Asia-Pacific. Beijing has rejected the claims of the project in the Solomon Islands. In November, Yoon and Kishida had met US president Joe Biden in Cambodia at a regional summit, where they “commended the unprecedented level of trilateral coordination” and “resolved to forge still-closer trilateral links, in the security realm and beyond”, reported CNN. The US, which has put sustained pressure on both the Asian countries to improve relations, has welcomed the summit, reported The Guardian.  As per NPR, Yoshihide Soeya, an international relations expert and emeritus professor at Keio University in Tokyo, said that if this visit does result in restoring communication between South Korea and Japan, then it means that “the US now doesn’t have to talk to Korea and Japan separately”. “If the visit does mark more than a momentary reprieve in tensions, it will most likely cause concerns in China,” Victor Cha, a professor of government and international affairs at Georgetown University and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told NYT. “China counts on Japan and Korea hating each other,” Cha said. “That’s part of their strategy to divide and weaken the US position in Asia.” With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.