Japanese leader must fill the other half of the cup

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will fly into Seoul on Sunday for a two-day stay.

Kishida's visit to South Korea comes sooner than expected after President Yoon Suk Yeol traveled to Tokyo for a summit in March. Many had thought he would come here right before or after the G7 summit in Hiroshima from May 19 to 21.

The Japanese leader's earlier-than-anticipated return visit is apparently at the behest of America. U.S. President Joe Biden, who just declared his reelection bid, wants to perfect the trilateral alliance to keep China in check before other Western leaders.

It also reflects Kishida's confidence, with an approval rating of over 50 percent. Kishida owes much of his soaring domestic popularity to Yoon, who bet almost everything on Japan six weeks ago and got little in return. Yoon's support rating, which plunged to the 20 percent range after he visited Japan, has yet to regain much of the loss.

That means it is now Kishida's turn to repay Yoon.

Many Koreans will watch the Japanese leader's lips regarding historical issues. The success of the two-day visit - and bilateral ties in the years to come - will depend on what he does aside from inheriting historical perceptions of the previous Japanese governments. At stake is whether Kishida will, and can, at least repeat Tokyo's 1998 statement, which contained phrases like "a heartfelt apology and remorse."

Regrettably, such chances appear slim, given rising nationalistic trends in Japan. Kishida's envoy for the upcoming visit said Wednesday that the Japanese prime minister highly assesses Yoon's courageous decision … and decided to reciprocate his visit to return (the sentiment) at least a little. Kishida must do "more than a little" and be "as courageous as" Yoon. His Korean counterpart will not demand it because the two nations share the "same values." But Yoon does not represent most Koreans on this.

Kishida is a seasoned diplomat and an expert in international relations. He must persuade parochial right-wingers in and outside his party on the need for Tokyo to continue reflecting on its past, like Germany, if Japan is to become a genuine leader. If he can do this, Kishida will be on the list of great leaders in world history despite short-term unpopularity at home. We know it's a remote possibility for now. Otherwise, however, the bilateral and trilateral alliance cannot last long if formed temporarily. For good or ill, Koreans, unlike Israelis, may forget but never forgive.

That explains why the U.S. must step in now - in a more desirable way. Biden should appoint, if unofficially, an official and send his envoy to Seoul and Tokyo to conduct genuine "shuttle diplomacy." (It is a term misused by most Korean media outlets. What Yoon and Kishida are about to resume is summit diplomacy through reciprocal visits.)

The envoy should advise Kishida to make the two World War II war criminal enterprises apologize to the South Korean victims of their forced labor and participate in a joint fund for their compensation in any way. This must not repeat the U.S.-mediated settlement on wartime sex slavery, which got nowhere amid strong protests by Koreans.

As the first South Korean President Syngman Rhee pointed out, America must come to terms with its historical mistake of condoning Japan's occupation of Korea more than a century ago. Rhee still thought Seoul had no other option but to ally with Washington to sail through rough international waters. Right or wrong, the incumbent South Korean leader thinks the same nearly eight decades later. The U.S. should respond in kind.

It will be better if the three countries emphasize the need to bring peace to Northeast Asia, including the Korean Peninsula, not through competition but through cooperation. They should encourage North Korea and China to return to the dialogue table.

Suppose the three remain content with isolating Beijing and scaring Pyongyang in Hiroshima. In that case, they will fail to persuade the rest of the world, including five other Western leaders, of their moral high ground.

Source: Yonhap News Agency