Japan-South Korea ties ‘positive’ after Israel evacuation aid, but could a new leader ‘turn things upside down’?

South Korea helped evacuate 51 Japanese nationals from Israel, with officials ‘openly agreeing to help each other out again in the future’

People exchanges are also picking up pace again, but analysts warn historical resentments could easily reverse any improvements in ties

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People being briefed by military and civilian personnel ahead of boarding a military aircraft to leave for South Korea at an airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Friday. Photo: EPA-EFE/South Korean Defence Ministry

Published: 7:30am, 17 Oct 2023Updated: 9:51am, 17 Oct 2023

Japan has expressed its gratitude to South Korea for helping to evacuate 51 Japanese nationals from Israel last week, the latest indication that Tokyo and Seoul are making progress in efforts to repair a relationship that has been badly bruised in recent years.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa on Sunday spoke to her South Korean counterpart Park Jin, after a South Korean military KC-330 transport aircraft touched down at Seoul Air Base the previous day carrying 192 South Koreans and six Singaporeans, as well as the Japanese nationals.

The two ministers agreed to work together to safeguard their citizens around the world in the future, and Kamikawa vowed that Japan would assist South Korean nationals when the occasion required it.

“What is really significant to me is that the two sides are not making a really big deal out of this situation, but that they are now openly agreeing to help each other out again in the future,” said Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, an international relations assistant professor at the University of Tokyo. “That might seem a small thing, but I see it as a very positive development.”

On Friday, President Yoon Suk-yeol told a gathering of two bilateral friendship associations that people exchanges between the two countries were picking up pace now that the coronavirus pandemic was over.

Yoon’s office later issued a statement quoting the president as saying: “This is evidence that the improvement and development of South Korea-Japan relations are the wish and will of the two countries’ peoples.”

There are other indications the neighbours are rebuilding bridges, with plans announced to build on the 1998 Japan-Republic of Korea Joint Declaration, signed by then-prime minister Keizo Obuchi and South Korea’s Kim Dae-jung. In the statement, Obuchi expressed “deep remorse and heartfelt apology” for Japan’s often brutal occupation of the Korean peninsula in the early decades of the last century.

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung (left) and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi toast in Tokyo on October 8, 1998. Photo: AP