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As Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan arrived in Seoul on Sunday to nurture a fledgling détente between the neighboring nations, South Koreans have been ready intently for what he needed to say about Japan’s brutal colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula within the early twentieth century.
Mr. Kishida’s two-day journey follows a go to in March by South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, to Tokyo. It implies that shuttle diplomacy between two key U.S. allies is again on observe after common exchanges between the nations’ leaders ended abruptly in 2011 over historic variations.
Few nations welcome the thaw as a lot as america. For years, it has been urging Tokyo and Seoul to let go of previous grievances and cooperate extra, each to discourage the nuclear menace from North Korea and to assist Washington rein in China’s financial and army ambitions.
When he met Mr. Yoon in Washington late final month, President Biden thanked the South Korean chief for his “brave, principled diplomacy with Japan.”
In March, Mr. Yoon eliminated a roadblock in relations with Japan when he introduced that South Korea would not demand Japanese compensation for victims of pressured labor throughout World Warfare II, however would create its personal fund for them. Mr. Yoon mentioned that Japan ought to not be anticipated to “kneel due to our historical past 100 years in the past.”
The olive department to Tokyo is a part of Mr. Yoon’s broader efforts to reshape South Korean diplomacy, aligning his nation nearer to nations with “shared values,” particularly america, on things like provide chains and a “free and open” Indo-Pacific.
Mr. Yoon’s diplomatic concessions have been a political boon for Mr. Kishida at dwelling however pricey for Mr. Yoon in his personal nation, the place South Koreans accused him of “traitorous, humiliating diplomacy.” His home critics say he gave an excessive amount of and obtained too little in return from Japan, which they are saying has by no means correctly apologized or atoned — a typical criticism amongst many different Asian victims, particularly in China and North Korea, of Japan’s World Warfare II aggressions.
To many South Koreans, what issues most in relations with Tokyo is how Japanese leaders view its colonial period, a time when Koreans have been pressured to undertake Japanese names; when faculties eliminated Korean language and historical past from the curriculum; and when tens of 1000’s of Korean girls have been pressured into sexual slavery for Japan’s Imperial Military. They’re prone to assess Mr. Kishida’s go to on whether or not — and the way instantly — he’ll apologize for that previous.
“South Koreans are all ears for what Kishida will say in regards to the historical past,” mentioned Lee Junghwan, an knowledgeable in Korea-Japan relations at Seoul Nationwide College. “If he says one thing obscure, simply making roundabout references to statements from the previous Japanese leaders, as he possible will, it could not go down very properly.”
Mr. Yoon’s authorities has tried to promote South Koreans on his outreach by elevating hopes that Japan would reciprocate — for example, by letting Japanese corporations that benefited from wartime pressured labor make voluntary contributions to the South Korean victims fund. In latest weeks Tokyo has lifted export controls imposed on South Korea after the dispute over pressured labor erupted in 2018 and began the method of placing the nation again on its “white record” of preferential commerce companions.
But when Mr. Kishida fails to ship on South Koreans’ expectations on historical past, “it’s going to forged a shadow over all that they’ve managed to perform in the previous few months,” mentioned Daniel Sneider, a lecturer of East Asian research at Stanford College. “It’s extra essential what he says in regards to the previous than whether or not or not, for instance, Japanese corporations finally contribute to the fund for the Korean pressured laborers.”
The Seoul journey is a take a look at of management for Mr. Kishida, and a chance to point out that he can broaden on Mr. Yoon’s efforts towards reconciliation, analysts mentioned.
“An uncommon window exists for him to display daring statesmanship and to shift the seemingly countless vortex of negativity between Japan and Korea,” mentioned Prof. Alexis Dudden on the College of Connecticut, an knowledgeable on Korea-Japan relations.
For example, Mr. Kishida may pay a reflective go to to any of Seoul’s monuments to the struggling that Koreans endured below Japanese occupation, Professor Dudden mentioned, evaluating such a transfer to a 1970 go to to Poland by the German chancellor, Willy Brandt. However doing so — not to mention kneeling earlier than a monument, as Chancellor Brandt famously did in Warsaw — could also be an excessive amount of to ask from Mr. Kishida, provided that his nation’s right-wing nationalists are poised to “make him pay for something they outline as being weak on Korea within the mudslinging reminiscence wars between the nations,” she mentioned.
The final time a Japanese chief visited South Korea, the connection was so unhealthy that the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, remained pointedly seated throughout a standing ovation as North and South Korean Olympians marched collectively throughout the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018.
Mr. Kishida, touring amid a extra amicable temper, has mentioned he wished to “add momentum” to the enhancing relations. However few analysts believed that decades-long tensions will disappear simply, given political stress at dwelling for each leaders.
“Greater than 90 p.c of our bilateral relationship is home politics,” mentioned Kunihiko Miyake, a former Japanese diplomat. “So South Koreans can’t pardon us. They’ll proceed to stress us, they usually need to keep these kind of relations without end by transferring the purpose posts.”
For his half, Mr. Kishida wanted the assist of right-leaning politicians in Japan, who’re among the many most influential in deciding on occasion leaders. Mr. Miyake mentioned he could be “stunned” if Mr. Kishida “all of a sudden makes overly conciliatory remarks vis-à-vis South Korea.”
But Tokyo could also be contemplating the right way to navigate delicate stress from america, analysts mentioned.
Mr. Biden’s repeated reward of Mr. Yoon’s diplomacy was “a type of message not solely to President Yoon however to Kishida,” mentioned Junya Nishino, a legislation professor at Keio College in Tokyo. Mr. Nishino added that latest electoral victories by Mr. Kishida’s occasion in particular elections final month may additionally give him “extra diplomatic area.”
Mr. Yoon’s personal willpower to enhance ties with Tokyo is backed partly by shifting public opinion in South Korea. In latest surveys, China has changed Japan because the nation regarded least favorably, particularly by youthful folks.
However misgivings about Japan have deeper roots amongst South Koreans than Mr. Yoon might wish to imagine, analysts say. A survey taken in March discovered that 64 p.c of South Korean respondents mentioned there was no have to hurry to enhance ties until Japan modified its perspective on historical past.
Ms. Dudden cautioned Seoul, Tokyo and Washington towards treating “historical past as mere background music to the current and irrelevant to the way it informs fast issues — on this occasion, standing agency on North Korea and more and more on China, too.”
Because the historical past of the bilateral ties between South Korea and Japan has repeatedly proven, a reconciliatory transfer over one historic dispute accomplishes little if one other dispute, comparable to over the territorial rights over a set of islets between the 2 nations, is rekindled.
“The historical past points have a manner of coming again and biting you within the rear finish,” Mr. Sneider mentioned. “These aren’t simply problems with short-term public opinion. They’re issues of identification in Korea.”
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