Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
The Israeli Walla! website: We are running out of stockpiles, our forces are exhausted, and the lives of the captives are in danger. It is time for a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
Several wounded in an Israeli bombardment of a tent in al-Mawasi, south of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli media: Three wounded, three killed in an ongoing operation in the Gaza Strip.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in southern Lebanon: Israeli artillery shelling targets the outskirts of the town of Shebaa
Al-Qassam Brigades: The targeting took place at the intersection of 'Street 5' with the western line north of Khan Younis
Al-Qassam Brigades: A NIMR armored personnel carrier carrying an Israeli soldier was targeted with an Al-Yassin missile north of Khan Younis
Israeli media: At least two soldiers killed by anti-tank missile fired at Israeli army forces in the Gaza Strip
Local Syrian sources: Mortar shells fell on more than nine villages in the Sweida countryside
Local Syrian sources: Dozens of dead and wounded have arrived at Sweida hospitals as a result of ongoing clashes at several locations in the western Sweida countryside
Local sources: Civilians, including children and women, were injured in the al-Maqous neighborhood of Sweida, in Syria, as a result of ongoing clashes

Japan PM heads to Seoul amid public resentment

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Agencies
  • 4 May 2023 13:48
4 Min Read

The two-day visit, which will begin on Sunday, will be a Japanese leader's first official visit to Seoul in more than ten years.

  • x
  • Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers a speech at his official residence in Tokyo, Japan July 14, 2022. (Reuters)
    Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers a speech at his official residence in Tokyo, Japan July 14, 2022. (Reuters)

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will visit Seoul by the end of this week as the two countries seek to boost their relationship in order to counter alleged DPRK threats.

The two-day visit, which will begin on Sunday, will be a Japanese leader's first official visit to Seoul in more than ten years.

Kishida will reportedly meet with President Yoon Suk Yeol -- who has prioritized resuming ties -- just weeks after the South Korean leader visited Tokyo in March.

Yoon has also just finished a state visit to Washington, where he met with President Joe Biden and inked an accord aimed at boosting the nuclear protection afforded to South Korea by the United States.

Relations between Seoul and Tokyo -- both key regional US security allies -- have long been severed over Japan's 1910-45 colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula, including the imposition of forced labor and sexual slavery.

Read next: Seoul to compensate Japan's forced labor victims, latter slam plan

It is worth noting that Washington has exerted strained efforts to bring the countries together to solidify their alliance against DPRK, which they identified as a mutual "threat". 

The United States and South Korea have, in turn, been boosting their defense cooperation, staging a series of major military exercises including two trilateral drills involving Japan this year.

But they are soldiering to do more. At their summit last month, Biden and Yoon announced the Washington Declaration, which bolsters the US nuclear umbrella over South Korea, and they vowed to speed up trilateral cooperation with Japan.

Related News

Japan learns the hard way; US alliance is conditional: WaPo

US demands allies' plans in event of Taiwan war erupting

DPRK considers all such cooperation as "absolutely identical with a dangerous war plot," as per a commentary carried by the country's official KCNA news agency.

'Short-lived' rapprochement 

This week, the Japanese Prime Minister claimed that his visit to Seoul would "give momentum to shuttle diplomacy'" between the neighbors.

During their March summit in Tokyo, Kishida and Yoon approved ending tit-for-tat trade curbs and resuming mutual visits, with Kishida also inviting the South Korean President to a G7 meeting in Hiroshima this month.

"The exchange of summits, first in Japan and now in Korea, is meant to signify the turbulence of the recent past is behind South Korea and Japan," Benjamin A. Engel, research professor at the Institute of International Affairs at Seoul National University, said as quoted by AFP.

When South Korea's Supreme Court ordered Japanese companies to make up for the victims of forced labor during the Second World War, the already strained relations between the two nations further deteriorated in 2018.

But in March this year, Seoul declared a plan to pay those impacted without Tokyo's direct involvement -- a move that angered much of the South Korean public.

A Gallup Korea poll released in the same month illustrated that nearly 60% of respondents were opposed to the government's proposal.

As long as general sentiment in South Korea stays sour toward Japan, the current diplomatic bonhomie risks being "short-lived", added Engel.

"The success of the visit will be measured by how there will be regular meetings and engagement between the two countries at the leadership level," Shihoko Goto, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center in Washington, said as quoted by AFP.

"The challenge will be whether public opinion in both countries will support such overtures," Goto added.

Read more: S.Koreans reject Seoul compensation for wartime Japanese forced labor

  • Japan
  • DPRK
  • US
  • South Korea

Most Read

Hezbollah SG reveals war details on Al Mayadeen for the first time

Hezbollah SG reveals war details on Al Mayadeen for the first time

  • Politics
  • 8 Jul 2025
Major ambush in Gaza kills 6 Israeli troops, injures dozens

Major ambush in Gaza kills 5 Israeli troops, injures 14

  • Politics
  • 8 Jul 2025
Israeli soldiers are seen in Beit Hanoun ahead of an operation by the al-Qassam Brigades, undated (Al-Qassam Brigades Military Media)

'Israel' on blast as media exposes report discrepancies in Gaza ambush

  • Palestine
  • 8 Jul 2025
Yemen Navy sinks ETERNITY C ship, shares footage of operation

Yemen Navy sinks ETERNITY C ship, shares footage of operation

  • Politics
  • 9 Jul 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
The Freedom Flotilla ship Handala as it departs for Gaza, where it aims to break the maritime blockade at a port in Syracuse, Sicily in southern Italy on July 13, 2025. (AFP)
Palestine

Freedom Flotilla's Handala departs Sicily in bid to break Gaza siege

The container ship CMA CGM Laperouse, left, docks at the Georgia Ports Authority's Port of Savannah, Sept. 29, 2021, in Savannah, Ga (AP)
Politics

US shipbuilding woes deepen as tariffs, outdated policies backfire

Gaza war raises ethical questions for ex-Obama, Biden officials
Politics

Mercenary firm tied to Gaza war crimes hires Obama-Biden PR operatives

'Israel' targets children in Gaza collecting water
Palestine

'Israel' strikes Gaza kids fetching water, blames it on 'malfunction'

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS