Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday called on South Korean President Lee Jae-myung to help “ensure regional stability,” as Beijing pressures Tokyo over its stance on Taiwan.
The two leaders met in Takaichi’s picturesque home region of Nara in western Japan, days after Lee visited Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing.
They agreed to strengthen cooperation on economic security, regional and global issues, as well as artificial intelligence, South Korea’s presidential office said.
Photo: AFP
Looming in the background of the meeting was Japan’s heated diplomatic spat with China, triggered by Takaichi’s suggestion in November that Tokyo could intervene militarily if China attacks Taiwan.
China reacted angrily, blocking exports to Japan of “dual-use” items with potential military applications, fuelling worries in Japan that Beijing could choke supplies of much-needed rare earths.
Takaichi said she told Lee that “while advancing Japan-South Korea relations, both countries should cooperate to ensure regional stability and fulfill their respective roles.”
“As the environment surrounding both of our countries becomes ever more severe, our bilateral relations, as well as the cooperation among Japan, South Korea and the United States, are assuming greater importance,” she later told a news conference.
At the beginning of his meeting with Takaichi, Lee said that cooperation between the two US allies “is more important than ever.”
“In this increasingly complex situation and within this rapidly changing international order, we must continue to make progress toward a better future,” Lee added.
They agreed to continue their “shuttle diplomacy” of regular meetings, Takaichi said, as well as work toward the complete denuclearization of North Korea.
Lee and Takaichi, who both took office last year, last met in October on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Gyeongju, South Korea.
It is Lee’s second visit to Japan since August, when he met Takaichi’s predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba.
The two were to have dinner last night, before visiting one of Japan’s oldest temples in Nara today.
“Behind closed doors, the leaders will certainly discuss the current Japan-China crisis, as Beijing’s retaliatory measures, including export controls, will have an impact on [South] Korea as well,” said Benoit Hardy-Chartrand, an East Asian geopolitics expert at Temple University’s Tokyo campus, with the supply chains of the three nations deeply intertwined.
Lee said in an interview with Japanese public broadcaster NHK that aired on Monday that it was not his place to “intervene or get involved” in the Japan-China row.
“From the standpoint of peace and stability in Northeast Asia, confrontation between China and Japan is undesirable,” he said. “We can only wait for China and Japan to resolve matters amicably through dialogue.”
Hardy-Chartrand said he believed “the South Korean government felt that it was necessary for President Lee to visit Japan not too long after going to China, in order to demonstrate that Seoul is not favoring one side over the other.”
Lee and Takaichi were also expected to discuss their relations with Washington, as US President Donald Trump’s unpredictability “has put in doubt old certainties and highlighted the importance of strengthening their ties,” he said.
On the bilateral front, bitter memories of Japan’s brutal occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945 have cast a long shadow over Tokyo-Seoul ties.
Lee’s conservative predecessor, Yoon Suk-yeol, who declared martial law in December 2024 and was removed from office, had sought to improve relations with Japan.
Lee is also relatively more dovish toward North Korea than was Yoon, and has said that South Korea and Japan are like “neighbors sharing a front yard.”
China’s military news agency yesterday warned that Japanese militarism is infiltrating society through series such as Pokemon and Detective Conan, after recent controversies involving events at sensitive sites. In recent days, anime conventions throughout China have reportedly banned participants from dressing as characters from Pokemon or Detective Conan and prohibited sales of related products. China Military Online yesterday posted an article titled “Their schemes — beware the infiltration of Japanese militarism in culture and sports.” The article referenced recent controversies around the popular anime series Pokemon, Detective Conan and My Hero Academia, saying that “the evil influence of Japanese militarism lives on in
ANTI-SEMITISM: Some newsletters promote hateful ideas such as white supremacy and Holocaust denial, with one describing Adolf Hitler as ‘one of the greatest men of all time’ The global publishing platform Substack is generating revenue from newsletters that promote virulent Nazi ideology, white supremacy and anti-Semitism, a Guardian investigation has found. The platform, which says it has about 50 million users worldwide, allows members of the public to self-publish articles and charge for premium content. Substack takes about 10 percent of the revenue the newsletters make. About 5 million people pay for access to newsletters on its platform. Among them are newsletters that openly promote racist ideology. One, called NatSocToday, which has 2,800 subscribers, charges US$80 for an annual subscription, although most of its posts are available
GLORY FACADE: Residents are fighting the church’s plan to build a large flight of steps and a square that would entail destroying up to two blocks of homes Barcelona’s eternally unfinished Basilica de la Sagrada Familia has grown to become the world’s tallest church, but a conflict with residents threatens to delay the finish date for the monument designed more than 140 years ago. Swathed in scaffolding on a platform 54m above the ground, an enormous stone slab is being prepared to complete the cross of the central Jesus Christ tower. A huge yellow crane is to bring it up to the summit, which will stand at 172.5m and has snatched the record as the world’s tallest church from Germany’s Ulm Minster. The basilica’s peak will deliberately fall short of the
Venezuelan Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado yesterday said that armed men “kidnapped” a close ally shortly after his release by authorities, following former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s capture. The country’s Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed later yesterday that former National Assembly vice president Juan Pablo Guanipa, 61, was again taken into custody and was to be put under house arrest, arguing that he violated the conditions of his release. Guanipa would be placed under house arrest “in order to safeguard the criminal process,” the office said in a statement. The conditions of Guanipa’s release have yet to be made public. Machado claimed that
RSS