Suga won't visit S Korea without guarantee on wartime labor dispute

Didn't he first indicate that he would not impose any pre-conditions?

If South Korea values it's relationship with Japan (and they certainly don't have to) they need to show good will by agreeing to the Arbitration Clause in the 1965 Treaty. That outcome will establish whether the SK Court has any jurisdiction over the war time labor issue. South Korea also needs to either reinstate the 2015 CW Agreement and give the money that Japan paid to the surviving CW, or return the money to Japan. Right now SK is acting like a thief. SK also needs to submit the requested Export documents as required to be on Japan's White List, if that is so important to them.

PM Suga is absolutely correct in not falling for the same game that South Korea has played for decades.

The US needs to rethink it's relations with South Korea as well. To date, despite being protected by the United States, they (1) refuse to take any stand against China (which supports North Korea) and (2) continue to carry on an anti-Japan agenda which harms the US-JPN-SK military alliance. When is South Korea going to participate in FON exercises along with the US, Australia, Japan, India? If ever.

Idiot. Put the trilateral summit aside and begin bilateral talks with Moon first; with no conditions. That's what is called a fresh start or else he's only going to get the same results as Abe....nothing.

Why would anyone trust what the SK government says.

Well, then it will just be a Xi-Moon summit in Seoul later this year.

Thank you Mr Suga.

The hateful SKorean even at this time, the worst year in recent memory, Covid19 still going around.... You know what S. Korea just did?

Another Comfort Woman statue built in Germany, Berlin September 30th, 2020.

They are going around the world spreading hate against Japan. Anywhere you have a Korean community they Unite Against Japan!

Koreans living outside of Korea hate Japan just as much as Koreans living in mainland Korea! You will see this statues wherever you have a Korean community!

@ReasonandWisdomNippon

Another Comfort Woman statue built in Germany, Berlin September 30th, 2020.

Germany remembers and teaches the Nazi atrocities, and history denial is a crime in Germany.

You deny holocaust or bow before Hitler's image, you go to prison in Germany.

Hence what Suga administration is doing to deny history would be considered a crime in Germany.

Samit: There's a reason why Germany now has good relations with its neighbours.

Pukey2Today  10:48 am JST

Samit: There's a reason why Germany now has good relations with its neighbours.

Yes there is. Germany doesn't have neighbors who use anti-Japan sentiment perpetually as a diplomatic and political tool despite having signed peace treaties expressing "peace and friendship".

"Why would anyone trust what the SK government says."

Why wast any time with them at all?

"South Korean authorities encourage men to marry foreign women. But their brides often become victims of abuse"

"Seven months later, Trinh -- a name CNN has chosen to use as her real name has been suppressed under South Korean law -- moved to South Korea to be with her husband, named Shin. Three months after that, she was dead."

"many foreign brides who meet men this way, officially classified as migrants through marriage, have become victims of discrimination, domestic violence and even murder at the hands of their husbands."

"https://edition.cnn.com/"

Germany remembers and teaches the Nazi atrocities, and history denial is a crime in Germany.

You deny holocaust or bow before Hitler's image, you go to prison in Germany.

Hence what Suga administration is doing to deny history would be considered a crime in Germany.

Totally agree with it, Germany was wiser and got over it blazingly fast.

A summit meeting with just Xi Jing Ping and Moon. Going to go over real well with Washington. Maybe about time South Korea asked China to protect them from North Korea which is supported by China. Koreans just can't help wanting to be a Chinese tributary state as they have been throughout their entire history.

Well, then it will just be a Xi-Moon summit in Seoul later this year.

Perfect opportunity for Xi to tell Moon what to do and Moon happily appeasing.

There's a reason why Germany now has good relations with its neighbors.

Ask Greece and Italy and how they are still trying to get reparations while having anti german sentiment and also calling the German government Nazis

You deny holocaust or bow before Hitler's image, you go to prison in Germany.

Is this why xenophobia and anti foreigner sentiment is on the rise, kept private, not mainstream of course.

Please don't use Germany for arguments, Germany and Europe in general does not care for Asians.

well New PM will deal with SK with their own medicine great idea n dont know why SK alys mentions Germany is SK a country or a district of China

Suga will be long gone before the SK president, so who cares if SK won’t bow to Japan’s demands to forget history.

Didn't he first indicate that he would not impose any pre-conditions?

no he didn't

If South Korea values it's relationship with Japan (and they certainly don't have to) they need to show good will by agreeing to the Arbitration Clause in the 1965 Treaty

Yup, but we both know they won't.

Well Played Suga. Now go to Yasukuni and prove your worth to the Japanese people.

Well Played Suga. Now go to Yasukuni and prove your worth to the Japanese people.

The Japanese people, eh? Which ones?

The Japanese people, eh? Which ones?

There is only one Japanese nation.

Another Comfort Woman statue built in Germany, Berlin September 30th, 2020

It was errected under false information and partly secret applications for a permit. In the German press releases you can only find the Korean point of view including giving false colors... For example it is published, that South Korea closed the 2015 deal on comfort women because of recent bilateral problems arising from Japan. Apparently the government of Berlin Mitte, consisting of Left Party, Greens and Social Democrats apparently didn't care so much about historic truth. That is the other side of Germany being stuck-up on other nations who are not as humble-minded. They hear peace statue, immediate thought: Peace=Good. But again kudos for SK for this perfect merchandise of distortion of history. Suga gave the only adequate reply there is.

Sk should have learned by now what u give is what u get back spread hatred u get hate back

There is a big difference between spreading hate about Japan and remembering history. That many do not get that is the tragedy. South Korea has every right in the world to remember and memorialize its history. As Japan always remembers and discusses the atomic bombings. Is that remembrance spreading hate about the US and if not, why not? What makes it different? Japan complains about South Korea remembering but it does not complain when any other country remembers. Japan is also normally silent when China remembers the Nanjing massacres and other serious crimes committed against it. South Korea is a convenient scapegoat and maybe it is because it used to be a colony. What is clear is that the relationship will not heal between japan and South Korea until some serious soul searching is done on both sides.

The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said that without such an assurance it would be "impossible" for Suga to attend a trilateral summit with China that South Korea seeks to host this year.

Beware, such "an assurance" must be visible and real, attached to a penalty against possible breach this time. Japan has already been deceived by Korean "goalpost mover" diplomacy.

With Japan being absent, China is also likely to cancel the summit (or go online). The SK is not a diplomatic priority for the other two.

Another Comfort Woman statue built in Germany, Berlin September 30th, 2020.

To this date, Germany has never atoned or apologized for their own "Comfort Women System".

"According to records, at least 34,140 European women were forced to serve as prostitutes during the German occupation of their own countries along with female prisoners of concentration camp brothels In many cases in Eastern Europe, teenage girls and women were kidnapped on the streets of occupied cities during German military and police round ups called łapanka or rafle."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_military_brothels_in_World_War_II

"The Foreign Ministry of the Polish Government in Exile issued a document on May 3, 1941, describing the mass kidnapping raids conducted in Polish cities with the aim of capturing young women for sexual slavery at brothels run by the German military. On top of that, Polish girls as young as 15 – classified as suitable for slave labor and shipped to Germany – were sexually exploited by German men. In Brandenburg, two Polish Ostarbeiter teens who returned home to Kraków in advanced stage of pregnancy, reported to have been raped by German soldiers with such frequency that they were unable to perform any of the worker's designated labour."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_military_brothels_in_World_War_II

As Japan always remembers and discusses the atomic bombings. Is that remembrance spreading hate about the US and if not, why not? What makes it different?

What's at stake has little to do with remembering history. Japan has never unilaterally seized the assets of locally operating American businesses for the purpose of intimidating Washington to apologize and compensate for A-bomb survivors and their descendants (or otherwise the assets would be liquidated). This is exactly how SK has done against Japan, and it is unlawful, highly unreasonable.

 South Korea is a convenient scapegoat and maybe it is because it used to be a colony.

Korea was not the only one colonized/annexed. Better fix victim mindset.

What's at stake has little to do with remembering history. Japan has never unilaterally seized the assets of locally operating American businesses for the purpose of intimidating Washington to apologize and compensate for A-bomb survivors and their descendants

Japan has "always" complained about statues and remembrance well before the current issue of personal compensation for slave labor. It is used by Japan to justify its current position.

Japan wrongly assumes that agreement on compensation means no more statues or talking about comfort women. It does not. They will be remembered and discussed long into the future as will the atomic bombing casualties. Japan should make itself comfortable with that knowledge.

The issue of slave labor needs to be discussed not ignored, if any headway is to be made. South Korea's domestic legal position will not be altered based on the PM of Japan threatening not to visit. Nor should it.

Japan wrongly assumes that agreement on compensation means no more statues or talking about comfort women. It does not. They will be remembered and discussed long into the future as will the atomic bombing casualties. Japan should make itself comfortable with that knowledge.

The issue of slave labor needs to be discussed not ignored, if any headway is to be made. South Korea's domestic legal position will not be altered based on the PM of Japan threatening not to visit. Nor should it.

The matter at hand has nothing to do with comfort woman statues or any of the matters you mentioned. Reparations for slave labor were made as a part of the 1965 treaty normalizing diplomatic relations which settled all such matters finally and permanently. That was supposed to be the end of it. Japan then agreed to pay the South Korean government another big sum of money to compensate Japan's wartime Korean sex slaves. That agreement included a formal apology and was also supposed to be full and final settlement of the matter. Now the South Korean government demands a Japanese company operating in South Korea pay them money for matters settled by the 1965 treaty and threatens to take their factory and equipment if they don't pay up. That is extortion. The South Koreans are not honoring the agreements they signed. ** *Dishonoring the treaties they signed is the matter at hand.*

Japan dont play blame game or build statues n if SK thinks they r rite n have the B try it out in ICJ otherwise stop scapegoating Germany n blaming Japan

My previous posts were in answer to @ReasonandWisdomNippon post.

The 1965 treaty made no mention of personal claims for forced labor. Japan wants it to be so. That Relations between the sovereign state of South Korea and Japan normalized after the treaty and compensation is not at issue. Japan's assumption that the state agreement also covers personal claims is at dispute. What is also in dispute is that Japan fully expects South Korea to not erect statues and memorialize and discuss comfort women with any nation and even internally.

As with all differences of opinion, dialogue is the only way to resolve such issues. With out that nothing gets resolved and bad relations is the only outcome.

I dont know about you but any treaty between my government and another is a state matter and I do not consent in any way to a reduction of my personal rights on any matter that directly impacts negatively on my life. If I was forced into slave labor by currently operating companies or their subsidiaries I would expect my right to sue would be protected and supported by my government. That is not a state matter but between a company and an individual. Perhaps others would be happy to surrender their rights and not get a reasonable compensation for their slave labor from the company that profited from it.

Japan dont play blame game or build statues n if SK thinks they r rite n have the B try it out in ICJ otherwise stop scapegoating Germany n blaming Japan

That thinking is in reverse.

South Korea has made its interpretation of the treaty and believes it is acting in accordance with it.

Citizens have sued a foreign company operating within South Korea's borders for compensation for slave labor during WWII from which the company profited. If Japan objects to this domestic case because the company is Japanese, and if Japan believes it is a treaty violation then the responsibility for referring this to the ICJ is Japans. That being said, why has Japan not taken it to the ICJ?

The simple answer is SK wont show up in ICJ n no matter how much u try separate n loot all grains of sand r silicone so all SK citizens r under under SK govt. rite now its no 2nd ww. Every company does business for profit not for statues n easy money through blackmailing

Peter14Today  03:20 pm JST

if Japan believes it is a treaty violation then the responsibility for referring this to the ICJ is Japans. That being said, why has Japan not taken it to the ICJ?*

Japan is a signatory to an Agreement which accepts ICJ jurisdiction and judgements. If another country brings an action against Japan in the ICJ, it is mandatory for Japan to answer.

In contrast, South Korea is not a signatory to this Agreement. It has no obligation to answer any claims brought against it at the ICJ or accept ICJ jurisdiction or rulings.

After the arbitrary Syngman Rhee line was drawn by South Korea and Liancourt Rocks were claimed, at the behest of the United States, Japan immediately filed a claim a requested a settlement at the ICJ. South Korea refused then and has refused two further times.

Outside of South Korea, this is viewed as a tacit admission that South Korea does not have confidence in it's case to be adjudicated by an objective International forum. The same applies to South Korea's refusal to comply with the Arbitration Clause in the 1965 Treaty.

What’s odd is that Germany never really did anything towards the Polish and Ukrainian women they abducted and forced them into the brothel while they are being pretty proud with intervening other country’s history.