Kishida seeks to solidify S Korea ties on farewell visit

Should be listening to ( Time to Say goodbye ) by A Bocelli and S Brightman, nice song for the event.

Personally, I appreciate Yoon’s attempt to strengthen ties with Japan.

The ROK soldiers in attendance there in shot no doubt muttering 'why are we bowing and scraping for this douche' over their kimchi jiggae afterwards.

"Both Prime Minister Kishida and President Yoon took on a great deal of personal risk and political risk to move forward the warming of their bilateral ties in ways that prior governments just 

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Japan and Korea have absolutely no choice but to bury the hatchet.

If not, the Chinese steamroller will flatten them both

@kurisupisu

Japan and Korea have absolutely no choice but to bury the hatchet.

Japan has no choice but Korea does have choices.

Japan's militarily weak but Korea is militarily very powerful, so China picks on Japan but not Korea. When was the last time you heard China making a naval showdown or a territorial space incursion in the Yellow Sea, while that's daily routine for Japan.

Today, the Democratic Party introduced a bill making October 25th as Dokdo(Liancourt Rocks) national holiday, opposed by Yoon. This is the third of anti-Japan bills introduced by the Democratic party. They are

1) Rising Sun Flag ban bill : Public exhibition of Rising Sun Flag in Korea is criminal, and the Korean government and military is prohibited from making any contact with any foreign organization that uses the Rising Sun Flag, ie Japanese SDF.

2) Anti-Treason bill : Anyone who has exhibited sympathy with Japan in speeches or publication(including online and social media) on historical narratives is prohibited from holding public office.

3) Dokdo National Holiday bill : The bill marks October 25th as the national Dokdo(Liancourt Rocks) holiday, a day of rest and celebration.

While Yoon will veto the bills, they will all swiftly be signed when the next Democratic president swears in. These were the measures that not even moderate Moon(Yes, Moon was considered a moderate with Japan policy), but are strongly endorsed by Lee Jae Myong and likeminded Democratic presidential contenders.

Friendship with Korea is just a waste of time and tax money.

The Rising Sun Flag issue suddenly started to be an issue for Koreans after the criticism of Ki Seong-yo in 2011. Even now, only Koreans consider it to be equivalent to the swastika, and even in Korea there is no law banning the Rising Sun Flag.

If a Korean criticizes Korea's fantasy history, they are charged with displaying facts and cannot hold public office. Poor thing.

Even though Japan has tried to clarify the Takeshima issue at an international court, Korea has already refused three times and is running away.

Korea is the only country that tries to make a retroactive law, showing how Korea is not a modern country governed by law.

@Agent_Neo

only Koreans consider it to be equivalent to the swastika,

Countries and organizations that ban the Rising Sun Flag

1) Korea

2) China

3) AFC(Asian Football Federation)

even in Korea there is no law banning the Rising Sun Flag.

It's already banned at municipal level, ie Seoul.

The reason it was not banned nationally was because of diplomatic complications arising from the ban with the US, but the current Democratic Party is anti-Japan enough to just pass the ban and tell the US to arm-twist Japan to make the SDF abandon the Rising Sun Flag. This was made possible by Yoon's pro-Japan policies.

@Data

And what exactly would that achieve?

Japanese SDF drops the Rising Sun Flag and switches to Hinomaru.

Who will remember a former politicians without influences anymore?

Kishida is no Nixon or Kissinger who holds little influences after they step down. Kishida is a very boring politician and he does not belongs to be a mere influencing!

@Data

But what would it achieve?

It means Japanese acceptance that there is something wrong with the Rising Sun Flag and history associated with it.

To demonstrate that Korea needs a technicality and a third-party country to get another country to have its sensibilities recognized? That certainly shows strength.

That's what Democrats believe, that Korea is actually strong enough and has leverage to make the US arm twist Japan.

And when the flag has been changed, what will have changed in the relationship between Japan and Korea?

Then the Korean military can resume contact with Japan, Korean intelligence agencies exchange intelligence with Japan, etc, and the US can share radar data feed it obtains from Korea. The USFJ was forced to turn off the radar monitors when Japanese officials visited due to the terms of data share agreement with Korea prior to GSOMIA, and the US will be going back to turning off monitors and not providing radar feed data once the Koreans tell the US to stop.

Without this radar feed from Korea, Japan is left totally blind from North Korean ballistic missile launches toward Japan, which has become more difficult to detect due to evasive maneuvers that North Korean missiles perform mid-air nowadays. This feed is so critical that White House national security advisors literally stole the Trump presidential order ending the US-Korea FTA from Trump's desk in order not to infuriate the Koreans and protect the radar data feed. So if Koreans tells the US to stop sharing the radar data feed with the Japanese, the US will. It's either a 10 second detection from Korean radar feed or a a 15 minute detection from Alaska radar base for North Korean ICBMs heading toward the US mainland.

Once the ban bill is passed and signed into law, it becomes impossible to undo even if conservatives are back in power as they don't have the votes to roll back the ban.

Why are you asking for an apology if you're not willing to accept it?

Koreans accepted Murayama statement and Kono statement as baseline of Japan's apology. Any attempt to roll back from this baseline, such as the Abe statement, is rejected. But that's exactly what Japan's conservatives have been trying to do, to roll back and deny Murayama and Kono statements.

Look at that smug face! What has this man accomplished to feel so smug? Fortunately we will not see it much after September.

"Look at that smug face!"

You are reading too much into a single photo. It is just an image, and is nothing more. Prime Minister is probably excited and happy to be in ROK...I know that I would be excited, too.

With the impending return of Donald Trump as president, this trip becomes more important for the security of Japan and Korea. As exemplified by Trump’s recent statements to NATO members ending with the threat that “Putin can do anything he wants in Europe”, Korea and Japan must be prepared for astronomical increases in their defense budgets to be demanded by Trump. His threat will include the withdrawal of all US forces from Korea and Japan. To prepare for this, a north and south Asia mutual defense organization must be initiated . All democratic countries in the region must join a mutual defense treaty. This new entity must copartner with NATO in regional defense obligations. This whole process must begin with Japan showing contriteness over its shameful conduct decades ago.

Along with this mutual defense treaty, Asian member states must also convene a joint economic organization to avert dependence on Russian oil and China’s industrial trade.

@Samit Basu

①When was the law banning the Rising Sun Flag enacted in Korea?

②There is no law banning the Rising Sun Flag in China. It has not even been discussed.

If there is, please tell me. Even my Chinese acquaintances say they don't know about it.

③The ordinance was enacted in Seoul in 2021, right?

Why did they bother to make it more than half a century after the war? lol

The ACL only prohibits provocative acts against the other party, and does not prohibit the Rising Sun Flag itself at all.

It's for a similar reason to the punishment given to Park Jong-woo, who held up a placard saying "Takeshima is our territory." Political performances are not allowed.

The Rising Sun Flag is a military flag, and before 2010, Self-Defense Force vessels sailed through Korean territorial waters several times with the Rising Sun Flag flying, and also called at ports as a goodwill gesture, but nothing was said.

It would be understandable if they had been complaining since the end of the war, but it is ridiculous for Japan to constantly respond to anti-Japanese movements that were born out of Ki Seong-yo's monkey performance excuses.