On Friday, Japanese and South Korean business executives promised to work more closely on electronics and technology to end years of acrimony over wartime history that has enraged South Koreans.
President Yoon Suk Yeol visited Tokyo for the first time in 12 years and met with businesspeople from both nations. On Thursday, Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ate “omurice”—omelets over rice—and agreed to repair relations.
The U.S. wants to unify against China’s increasing strength and North Korea’s missile program, but the friction between the two neighbors and U.S. allies is growing.
Washington has improved economic diplomacy with both nations to counter China’s expanding technical might, particularly on semiconductors, where South Korea and Japan are key participants.
At Friday’s meeting, Yoon said Japan and South Korea had “a lot of opportunity for collaboration” in semiconductors, batteries, and electric cars.
“Both administrations would do everything to promote chances to communicate and conduct business,” he added.
The business lobby organizations of both nations agreed to fund a 200 million yen ($1.5 million) “future-oriented” foundation that corporations may contribute to. The organisations say the money is for rare resource research, supply chain issues, and youth exchanges.
Given the opposition in South Korea, where many feel Tokyo has not fully atoned for its 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean peninsula, including wartime forced labor, those attempts may fail.
The newly established foundation looked to allow Japanese corporations to sponsor programs that may help South Korea without forcing them or Tokyo to backtrack on the 1965 treaty’s reparations settlement.
Lee Jae-Myung, head of the main opposition Democratic Party, claimed Yoon “gave off our country’s pride, the victims’ human rights, and the justice of history, all of that, in exchange for a bowl of omurice.”
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