Leaders of Japan and South Korea discuss economy and regional challenges at summit

NARA: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Tuesday for a summit in western Japan as the two leaders aim to improve the sometimes-strained relationship as Tokyo faces a deepening row with China.

The meeting could deliver a political win as Takaichi is seeking to shore up her power. A few months after taking office, she enjoys strong approval ratings, but her party has a majority in only one of the two houses of parliament. There’s growing speculation that she may be planning a snap election in hopes of gaiwning more seats.

Takaichi is hosting Lee in her hometown, Nara, an ancient capital known for its deer and centuries-old Buddhist temples. On Wednesday, she will take Lee on a tour of Horyu Temple, which includes buildings from the late 7th or early 8th century. They’re some of the world’s oldest surviving wooden structures and illustrate Japan’s adoption of Buddhism via the Korean Peninsula. Lee will also meet with South Korean residents in Japan before returning home in the afternoon.

Japan’s cultural, religious and political ties to the Korean Peninsula are ancient, but in modern times, its relationship has been repeatedly disrupted by disputes stemming from Japan’s brutal colonial rule of Korea from 1910 to 1945.

Takaichi was in Nara on Monday to prepare and posted on X: “I hope to further push forward Japan’s relations with South Korea in a forward-looking way as we meet in the ancient capital of Nara with more than 1,300 years of history and longstanding cultural exchanges between Japan and the Korean Peninsula.”

The Japanese prime minister faces intensifying trade and political tension with China over a remark about Taiwan that angered Beijing days after she took office. Takaichi said that potential Chinese military action against Taiwan, the island democracy Beijing claims as its own, could justify Japanese intervention.

Tuesday’s meeting will focus on trade and the challenges of China and North Korea.

Japan and South Korea, both key US allies, must also figure out how to deal with President Donald Trump’s unpredictable diplomacy, and both countries are under US pressure to increase defence spending.