2 weeks ago
1
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi held their 4th gathering successful astir six months connected Tuesday (May 19, 2026), underscoring their propulsion to deepen ties betwixt the humanities Asian rivals successful the look of geopolitical challenges.
Mr. Lee hosted Takaichi successful his hometown of Andong, a southeastern South Korean metropolis celebrated for a centuries-old accepted people colony that is simply a UNESCO World Heritage site. In January, the 2 met successful Ms. Takaichi’s hometown of Nara, an past Japanese capital. The meetings marked the archetypal clip sitting leaders of the 2 countries person visited each other’s hometowns.
South Korea’s Presidential bureau expressed anticipation that Tuesday’s (May 19, 2026) acme would fortify communal spot betwixt Mr. Lee and Ms. Takaichi. Ms. Takaichi told reporters earlier connected Tuesday (May 19, 2026) that she hopes the talks volition deepen practice “under the terrible geopolitical conditions specified arsenic situations successful the West Asia and the Indo-Pacific.”
The summit's authoritative docket includes economical and vigor cooperation, the Iran war and improvement of their bilateral ties, which person nary existent sticking points. Experts accidental the gathering apt volition proceed smoothly and the narration volition stay connected a affirmative trajectory for now.
“The 2 countries enactment much accent connected docket for practice than contentious issues,” said Choi Eunmi, a Japan adept astatine the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies. “They would present deliberation scenes of perpetually fluctuating narration oregon yet antagonistic bilateral ties won’t beryllium adjuvant to anyone now.”
South Korea and Japan are some cardinal U.S. allies with vibrant democracies. But their narration has agelong experienced terrible ups and downs implicit grievances stemming from Japan’s 35-year colonization of the Korean Peninsula earlier the extremity of World War II.
Relations began improving successful 2023 erstwhile Mr. Lee and Ms. Takaichi’s predecessors took steps to determination beyond past disputes and fortify cooperation, saying they faced communal challenges similar the U.S.-China strategical competition, proviso concatenation vulnerabilities and North Korea’s advancing atomic arsenal.
When Mr. Lee and Ms. Takaichi each took bureau arsenic caller leaders past year, observers disquieted astir Ms. Takaichi’s estimation arsenic a right-wing information hawk and anticipation that Mr. Lee, a governmental liberal, would tilt toward North Korea and China and distant from the U.S. and Japan. But they person maintained cooperation, adjacent successful immoderate unprecedented ways.
In August, 2 months earlier Ms. Takaichi’s inauguration, Mr. Lee became the archetypal South Korean person to take Japan arsenic his archetypal destination for a bilateral summit. At the extremity of their gathering successful January, Mr. Lee and Ms. Takaichi drummed to K-pop hits specified arsenic BTS’ “Dynamite” successful a jam league arranged by the Japanese leader, a dense metallic instrumentality who was a drummer successful her assemblage days.
Mr. Lee has said helium and Ms. Takaichi stock a presumption that nationalist leaders indispensable enactment otherwise than mean politicians. But galore observers accidental the 2 leaders besides apt consciousness the request to tighten practice due to the fact that they person much sedate geopolitical difficulties than their predecessors specified arsenic U.S. President Donald Trump’s America-first argumentation and planetary economical harm caused by the Iran war.
South Korea and Japan some person pledged hundreds of billions of dollars successful U.S. concern investments. Mr. Trump’s tariff war and his transactional attack to information endanger the spot successful the U.S. held by galore South Korean and Japanese.
Ties betwixt Seoul and Tokyo are truthful delicate they could endure unexpected setbacks if they neglect to formulate coping measures for explosive issues specified arsenic Japan’s colonial-era mobilisation of Koreans arsenic forced laborers and enactment slaves, according to experts, who accidental wrangling implicit those issues has eased arsenic the 2 governments effort to debar nationalist discussions.
“Both countries aren’t talking astir however to resoluteness and forestall recurrences of conflicts implicit those issues and we don’t cognize erstwhile they could hap again,” Mr. Choi said.
