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.”
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS