Kishida says Japan, South Korea should quickly improve ties

I really hope these neighbors can kiss, make-up and put their past behind them, but this is all a pipe dream for now. Until there is a common existential problem or all sides have stopped bringing up their past mistakes, efforts to improve ties will always face stumbling blocks

The ball is on the Korean side.

Prior to discussing any security cooperation, the Korean Navy must acknowledge and apologize over its radar irradiation.

韓国海軍艦艇による火器管制レーダー照射事案（最終見解）

https://www.mod.go.jp/j/approach/defense/radar/final_view.html

No No No...kishida san.

Japan should quickly improve the relationship with Korea.

You got it all wrong !

Kishida is willing to amend ties by demanding korea should hurry up and be quiet ?

Not a good plan .

Kishida says

Talk is cheap, KISH.

We've been hearing that since decades before we were born. Do it, then.

Translation: Kishida is relieved that Japanese politicians and public figures can continue making revisionist statements about Japanese-Korean history without blowback.

I am sure Japan would be mroe than happy to improve relations, depending on what is asked of them. I am not sold on what would be accomplished under a Yoon presidency though. Lip-service maybe, but any actual steps towards reconciliation strike me as unlikely.

EastmanToday  09:42 am JST

if you think that ROK will improve ties with you right after you have sent flowers presents to Yasukuni you must be on weed...

Why? There are many Koreans who served in the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces who are also honored there. The flowers went to all who are honored there, including these Koreans.

JJ WToday  12:26 pm JST

Translation: Kishida is relieved that Japanese politicians and public figures can continue making revisionist statements about Japanese-Korean history without blowback.

Historical revisionism in Japan is minimal. Whereas in South Korea, they outright deny having fought the Allies in WWII as part of the Japanese Empire. Over 200,000 Koreans. Historical revisionism is national policy.

Any improvement in SK-JP relations is entirely up to the incoming Yoon adninistration. Good relations were established back in 1965. The became the worst during the Moon administration. Unless SK reinstates the "Permanent and Irreversible" 2015 Comfort Women Agreement, which Kishida negotiated as then Foreign Minister, SK will not be able to regain Japan's trust. Regardless of whether it is an individual or an entire nation. trust is easy to lose, but difficult to regain once lost. SK is going to have to make a very serious effort.

"Yasukuni Shrine operates a war museum of the history of Japan (the Yūshūkan), which some observers[8] have criticized as presenting a revisionist interpretation. A documentary-style propaganda video shown to museum visitors portrays Japan's conquest of East Asia during the pre-World War II period as an effort to save the region from the imperial advances of colonial Western powers. Displays portray Japan as a victim of foreign influence, especially Western undermining of trade.[citation needed] The museum has no mention of any of the atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army, including the Nanking massacre."

Wikipedia. LOL

OssanAmericaToday  01:57 pm JST

Historical revisionism in Japan is minimal.

LMAO you can't be serious, your comment itself is ignorant of reality. In both comparative and absolute terms Japan is way up there.

Revisionism in Japan, and apathy to its shameless expression, is baked into national politics and history education and even pop culture on a pervasive scale. In no other first world democratic country would a politician or business leader feel so comfortable in making statements outright denying historical atrocities or denigrating the victims, with the confidence that they will probably not receive meaningful blowback or lose customers for inflammatory remarks that anywhere else would be considered terrible political/business sense.

Even Trump wasn't dumb enough to suggest that slavery and the atomic bombings didn't happen, because thankfully the majority of Americans are historically aware and care enough not to provide shelter for historical revisionists either through explicit support or silence.

Once if there are some rogued Japanese politicians making anti Korean remarks or about the soverignity of that disputed island or the narration of Japanese history in WW2 ......their relations will be strained again. For the South Koreans, Japan was the cause of their tragedies and the 77years of seperation of two Koreas. And the comfort women statue in Jspan was a violation of freedom expression!

Historical revisionism in Japan is minimal. Whereas in South Korea, they outright deny having fought the Allies in WWII as part of the Japanese Empire. Over 200,000 Koreans. 

Don't forget the time a Korean professor was sued for "defamation" because she published a book saying that some Koreans voluntarily became comfort women or helped recruit them.

"South Korean professor fined for book about ‘comfort women’, proving the truth is still dangerous"

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2118358/south-korean-professor-fined-book-about-comfort-women-proving

JJ WApr. 27  02:36 pm JST

OssanAmericaToday  01:57 pm JST

Historical revisionism in Japan is minimal.

LMAO you can't be serious, your comment itself is ignorant of reality. In both comparative and absolute terms Japan is way up there.

Very serious. Your comment exposes how little you know of modern Japan, whose official position regarding WWII and all issies related to it are easily available on MOFA's site. Japan is a democracy so individuals are free to make statements, whether trie or false, praisable or ridiculous. You are using such individual comments as "evidence" of Japan's official position, which it is not.