South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi agreed to step up cooperation between the neighbors, whose relations are occasionally strained, as they both face growing uncertainty and regional challenges.
"I believe cooperation between Korea and Japan is now more important than ever and anything else, as we have to continue moving forward to a new, better future amid this complex, unstable international order," Lee said at the outset of the summit Tuesday.
Takaichi said she renewed her determination to further improve Japan's relations with South Korea “as I believe the two countries should cooperate and contribute for the stability in the region.”
“This year I will elevate Japan-South Korea relations even higher," said Takaichi, who aims to secure stable ties with Seoul while Tokyo struggles with a worsening dispute with China.
The meeting could deliver a political win as Takaichi seeks to shore up her power. A few months after taking office, she enjoys strong approval ratings but her party has a majority in only one of two houses of Parliament. There is growing speculation she may be planning a snap election in hopes of gaining more seats.
Takaichi is hosting Lee in her hometown, Nara, an ancient capital known for its treasured deer and centuries-old Buddhist temples, following a request by Lee during the October APEC meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea.
Nara, the center of cultural exchanges between the Korean Peninsula and Japan in ancient times, “carries a special meaning at a time Korea-Japan exchanges are more important than ever," Lee said.
Takaichi was in Nara on Monday to prepare and posted on X: “I hope to further push forward Japan’s relations with South Korea in the forward-looking way as we meet in the ancient capital of Nara with more than 1,300 years of history and longstanding cultural exchanges between Japan and the Korean Peninsula.”
The Japanese prime minister faces intensifying trade and political tension with China over a remark about Taiwan that angered Beijing days after she took office. Takaichi said that potential Chinese military action against Taiwan, the island democracy Beijing claims as its own, could justify Japanese intervention.
Tuesday's meeting was intended to focus on trade and the challenges of China and North Korea, as well as efforts to deepen trust between the two countries.
Japan and South Korea, both key US allies, must also figure out how to deal with President Donald Trump’s unpredictable diplomacy, and both countries are under US pressure to increase defense spending.
Lee was in Beijing last week for talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as China steps up economic and political pressure against Japan and seeks to cozy up to Seoul. During the visit, the South Korean leader told reporters that relations with Japan are as important as those with China but that South Korea's ability to broker reconciliation between its neighbors is limited.
Lee, in an interview Monday with Japan’s NHK television, noted his interest in gaining Japanese backing for South Korea's participation the 12-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. He said that would involve South Korea lifting a ban on imports from Fukushima and nearby Japanese prefectures affected by the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and may take time because of health concerns among South Koreans.
Lee also said his country wants to cooperate with Japan on security under a trilateral framework that includes the US, but “what’s really important is the issue of deep mutual trust.”
Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have begun improving in recent years in the face of shared challenges such as growing China-US competition and North Korea’s advancing nuclear program.
There were early concerns about Takaichi's ability to work with Lee, fed by her reputation as a security hawk and an assumption by some that the left-wing South Korean leader would tilt toward North Korea and China. But so far, both leaders have sought to set aside their differences.
While the two leaders are expected to avoid discussing their historical disputes, media reports say they may discuss possible humanitarian cooperation in the ongoing effort to recover remains from a former undersea mining site in western Japan where 180 workers, mostly Korean forced laborers, were killed in a 1942 accident.
