Japan hails S Korea's solution to wartime labor compensation dispute

Korea will still find a problem with it for some reason.

A correction.

The foundation that Kishida agreed to let Japanese companies contribute is a "Future Youth Development Foundation" designed to fund youth exchange, not the said Forced Laborer Foundation. Yoon is proposing that the Forced Laborer Foundation be funded exclusively by Korean government controlled companies due to Kishida's refusal to put single yen into any foundation that includes the word "Forced Laborer".

Asked about the possibility of inviting Yoon to the Group of Seven summit in his constituency of Hiroshima in May, Kishida said only that he is now considering which nations and international organizations should participate in the G7 gathering as guests.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida extending a personal invite to President Yoon Suk Yeol is crucial diplomacy to forge more positive relations.

Steer away from political interference in attempts to repair past grievance, move to establish a Royal commision to bring all parties together and thus present guidance.

Government, education, student exchange programmes.

Think, think about what next , what if Yoon's presidency is over and the left wing get the regieme.

Everything will be re-negotiating again!

elephant200

Yes, this is the very reason why the South korea/Japan normalization treaty, fifteen years in the making must be the foundation to repair and solidity a future for the next generations.

Considering the behavior of South Korea towards Japan over the last couple decades, and in particular that under the previous Moon administration, I have no doubt that there are those in Japan who simply do noy trust South Korea to keep their word. But I am relieved to see that the Kishida administration is moving forward, even with caution, to work together with the Yoon administration to resolve disputes and start undoing the enormous damage done by former president Moon.

If Pres Yoon is succesful, he will have turned the direction of South Korea around, towards reinforcing South Korea's own security together with Japan and the U.S, in the face of the ongoing threats from North Korea. As Yoon himse;f said, both South Korea and Japan are democracies and are partners, in the face of common threats, Anyone who goes on with anti-JPN and anti-Yoon propaganda today is merely working for North Korea and it's backers China and Russia.

Anyone who goes on with anti-JPN and anti-Yoon propaganda today is merely working for North Korea and it's backers China and Russia.

Haha

Thank goodness, this is all finally, and irreversibility, over and done with!!

@elephant200

Think, think about what next , what if Yoon's presidency is over and the left wing get the regieme.

It won't even take the next presidency for this deal fall apart. It could fall apart as soon as the end of this year.

@OssanJapan

If Pres Yoon is succesful

He won't be. The forced laborers themselves already rejected Yoon's plan and will proceed with asset liquidation, and this plan cannot stop the liquidation process.

If you are talking about Yoon's presidency, he's already finished before Year 1 due to the massive public backlash that's much much bigger than the public backlash against the comfort women agreement.

Not sure why Yoon decided to commit a political suicide, all the lawmakers in his own party and his advisors were said to have opposed this deal and are now trying to distance themselves from Yoon, because they don't want to go down with Yoon's sinking ship.

 Anyone who goes on with anti-JPN and anti-Yoon propaganda today is merely working for North Korea and it's backers China and Russia.

Actually they are working for the Korean public, 63.9 ~ 70% of whom oppose this plan according to polls and real-time analytics on news portal comments.

If, IF it sticks, it will be a very positive outcome.

Whether Pres Yoon's improvement in SK-JPN relations will last 5 years when he is no longer in office will depend on global circumstances at the time. It is working now because some SK leaders with foresight are concerned about SK's security and realize that the long ingrained anti-JPN posture works against them. And SK reaching an agreement and ripping it up under Yoon js unlikely, as restoring SK's credibility is high on his agenda. But if there is global peace 5 years down the road and SK no longer fears for it's own security, then undoubtedly the anti-JPN political tool may well arise again. But I would give Pres Yoon a chance. He has more courage and patriotism than any of the several past SK leaders.

Wonderful news. I hope and pray they all follow through for the good of both nations.

@Nemo

If, IF it sticks, 

It can't stick because it's not legally binding and the forced laborers already rejected it, will proceed with asset liquidation.

@OssanJapan

Whether Pres Yoon's improvement in SK-JPN relations will last 5 years

More like until the end of this year when the first liquidation order can be issued by the Supreme court. Remember, this proposal isn't legally binding and the forced laborers can continue to proceed with liquidation which they already pledged to do today.

And SK reaching an agreement and ripping it up under Yoon js unlikely

Actually that will happen 100%. The incoming left wing president will make sure to wipe Yoon's legacy clean. That's the Korean way. Remember, the opposition now publicly calls Yoon a traitor, can't leave the traitor's legacy behind.

But if there is global peace 5 years down the road and SK no longer fears for it's own security

Korea no longer fears its security regardless of global condition because Korea itself is now a military superpower and the top 4 time arms exporter to the world gunning for top 3 position.

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/06/1161250054/u-s-allies-south-korea-and-japan-move-closer-to-resolve-forced-labor-feud

Whether the resolution can proceed as proposed, however, remains unclear. Victims and civic groups have strongly opposed the plan, criticizing the lack of apology and contribution from the Japanese companies and government.

Yang Geum-deok, who worked at a Mitsubishi factory as a teenager in the 1940s, said an apology is the key to a proper resolution, not a fund collected in South Korea "while someone else is at fault."

"I would rather starve to death than take that money," she said at a press conference on Monday.

Activists called the plan "humiliating" and inattentive to the victims' voices. Lawyer Lim Jae-sung, who represents the victims, said all three surviving victims of the three Supreme Court cases are opposed to the government's plan and will continue to pursue liquidation of Japanese companies' assets.

Yoon's plan is based on a faulty legal theory of debt transferring between parties suggested by the Mitsubishi's lawyer, which is an acceptable for settling commercial/personal debts but not punitive damages debts. Legal scholars already widely criticized Yoon's plan as a legal impossibility because punitive damages are to punish the specific defendants and such debts just can't be transferred between parties(There is even a specific clause in the civil law prohibiting such transfer), but Yoon is desperately arguing this because it was never tried before.

This is why the Korean supreme court has no choice but to order the liquidation of seized Japanese assets.

This comes up about every 6 years...

Expect some more trouble next time South Korea wants to stir up some anti Japanese feeling to suit their domestic agenda.

Japan, grow a pair, remind them they were a colony because they lost. That's how things worked in those days.

Mr KiplingToday  08:23 pm JST

Japan, grow a pair, remind them they were a colony because they lost. That's how things worked in those days.

Korea never "lost" anything. They were annexed because (1) Japan as well as the US and UK felt that Russia would take the Korean Penninsula and (2) some Koreans were for becoming part of the Japanese Empire and some were against it. There was never a war or battle between Korea and Japan leading up to the 1910 annexation.

It;s a good thing that both nations are currently have rational level headed leaders, and not hate mongers.

Yoon is not a very welcome figure in South Korea, he is as hateful as most right wing South Korean presidents and he is seen by people as an appeaser, a traitor,his wife is dishonesty she is even more disgusting!

Korea never "lost" anything.

Time to read up on the history?

"The Empire of Japan responded by sending their own force to Korea to crush the Tonghak and installed a puppet government in Seoul."

FredrikToday  09:15 pm JST

Korea never "lost" anything.

Time to read up on the history?

"The Empire of Japan responded by sending their own force to Korea to crush the Tonghak and installed a puppet government in Seoul."

Time to get educated. The Tongshak rebellion was agaist the Korean government already in existence. The Korean government were fighting the rebels. China sent troops to support the rebels. Japan sent troops to support the Korean government and fight the Chinese. This lead to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894/95. It was not a war between Japan and Korea."

When is this going to end? I recall back to 2015, Abe Government did apologize and made an agreement with South Korean government with a lump sum payment.

Unfortunately it never came about. It's true that Japan did negotiate a "final and irreversible" agreement with Korea to end the whole thing, but then the Korean government changed, and the new administration saw more political benefit in painting Japan as the enemy, than in trying to resolve the issue. So they ripped up the agreement before ratifying it, and instead spent the next decade criticizing Japan for not apologizing, without telling Japan what they actually wanted. It benefited them politically.

It's good of Japan after all that to come back to the table. It definitely makes modern day Japan look much more magnanimous than Korea, after Korea spit in their face a decade ago. But Japan must apologize, there was wrong done. Nothing changes that. If Korea refuses the apology again this time, then at a certain point it's a waste of time even trying, as you can't apologize to someone who refuses to accept it. In such a case, Japan should put out an official apology independent of the Koreans, and just move on.

Hopefully Korea will be actually looking to resolve the issue this time, instead of looking for more domestic political ammo.

In Korea, the people who decides what's "final and irreversible" aren't the presidents, but the victims themselves.

On a moral level, you are entirely correct. But on a political level, the world needs to move on instead of focusing on grievances past. The only way to do this is to politically agree on a resolution, and move forward, which the Japanese made a good faith effort to do. The problem is that the Koreans administration decided they could get more political clout by continuing the grievance campaign against Japan, instead of putting forth an alternative to the agreement they had initially come to a mutual agreement on.

It's good Japan is magnanimous enough to come back to the table after that. The apology still needs to happen, but Korea has NOT facilitated that in the past decade, they've only tried to exploit the issue for their own political gain.

According to the last poll taken just before the announcement on March 3~4, 64.2% of respondents replied Japanese apology to forced laborers were the absolute minimum condition needed for a deal with Japan on the forced laborer issue. This is roughly in line with earlier polls showing a 64% opposition to Yoon's plan.

Do expect terrible poll numbers following the announcement, early news portal traffic analytics right after the announcement were indicating 70% in opposition, 15% in support to Yoon's plan.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/8b218f7c12f0bc52931f1cf2f1013872139a37e0

韓国世論の64.2％「徴用工問題、日本の謝罪を前提にすべきだ」

3/6(月) 9:42配信

韓国政府による元徴用工訴訟問題の解決策発表に先立ち、世論調査機関エムブレインパブリックがnews1の依頼を受けて3～4日、韓国国内の世論調査を実施したところ、64.2％が「日本の謝罪など歴史の究明を前提にすべきだ」と回答した。

Japan will need South Korea’s help if North Korean missiles start landing on Japan. All concerned Japanese citizens and companies should donate to the fund proposed in this article

@Pacificpilot

All concerned Japanese citizens and companies should donate to the fund proposed in this article

The plaintiffs aren't looking at anybody's money; they only want the money of the companies that conscripted them and put them into forced labor, Mitsubishi and Nippon Steel.

The plaintiffs aren't looking at anybody's money; they only want the money of the companies that conscripted them and put them into forced labor, Mitsubishi and Nippon Steel.

And the government of Korea wants to use this as a political issue to keep them in power, as long as they can. They have shown no interest in actually finding a resolution to the issue. This issue serves them better as an issue they can use to rile up their base against a common enemy, than as an opportunity to try to move forward with their neighbor in a meaningful way.

Hopefully they can get past their political grandstanding this time, but after the last debacle a decade ago, I don't have much hope. Too many Koreans still want to use this as an issue to attack Japan and have no interest in resolution.