As the two US allies seek closer ties, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Tuesday that he will visit South Korea next week for talks with President Yoon Suk Yeol.
It would be the first visit to the country by a Japanese prime minister since 2018, and it comes after Kishida and Yoon agreed in March to lift tit-for-tat trade restrictions at a conference in Tokyo.
For years, the neighbors were embroiled in a heated disagreement over Japan’s use of forced labor during WWII.
Yoon, on the other hand, has been eager to put the spat behind him and establish a united front against regional threats such as North Korea.
“We are coordinating (my) visit to South Korea on May 7 and 8, if circumstances permit,” Kishida said in Ghana, the second leg of a tour to four African nations and Singapore.
The visit is “a good opportunity to hold a candid exchange of opinions over accelerating Japan and South Korea’s relationship, and the rapidly changing international situation,” he told reporters.
Kishida expressed confidence that the visit will “give momentum to shuttle diplomacy'” between Japan and South Korea.
The presidents agreed in March to resume regular mutual visits, which had been halted for almost a decade, and Kishida has invited Yoon to the G7 summit on May 19-21.
The nations’ often-testy relations deteriorated when South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered Japanese corporations to pay victims of forced wartime labor in 2018.
However, Seoul announced this year a plan to compensate those affected without involving Tokyo.
In an effort to thaw relations further, Japan’s commerce ministry announced last week that it has begun the process of adding South Korea back to a so-called “white list” of trustworthy trading partners, after downgrading it in 2019.
