Japan-South Korea relations

Japan’s upcoming naval fleet review will be a litmus test for South Korea’s Yoon administration to improve bilateral ties.

Why are Japan and South Korea, both U.S. allies and East Asian democracies, continuously at odds over everything from their territorial dispute to wartime labor compensation?

While Yoon failed to hold a formal summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, he succeeded in having an “informal meeting” with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio. 

With relatively new governments and a pressing threat from North Korea, the timing to renew Seoul and Tokyo ties is better now than it has been in years.

Much of the West is eulogizing the former Japanese prime minister. In China and South Korea, reactions are far less positive.

The Yoon administration has expressed a strong willingness to improve bilateral ties with Japan, but Tokyo seems unwilling to budge on the central issues. 

Park Jin became the first South Korean foreign minister to visit Tokyo since 2019.

With a new consultative body to address forced labor issues, the Yoon administration is seeking to prevent the issues that scuttled the 2015 "comfort women" agreement.

Prime Minister Kishida's emphasis on unity with NATO over Russia paid off with recognition of China as a challenge to NATO's interests and security.

A meeting between the leaders of Japan and South Korea has shown the issues that divide them, including North Korea.

New President Yoon Suk-yeol has been clear about his intentions. Putting rhetoric into practice will prove more difficult, but not impossible.