TOKYO — Former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso left for Seoul on Wednesday to meet with South Korean officials as the two countries try to improve ties that were badly strained by Japanese wartime atrocities.
At the center of the disputes between the two countries are South Korean court rulings in 2018 that ordered Japanese companies to compensate wartime forced Korean laborers. The Japanese government and the companies have refused to comply with the rulings, saying all compensation issues have been settled under a 1965 normalization treaty and accusing South Korea of violating the international law.
But ties have started showing signs of improvement since South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s conservative government took power in May. As key Asian allies to the United States, having a strained relationship also poses a concern for their security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region as it faces growing threats from China and North Korea.
Gaffe-prone Aso is also known for his family business’ wartime use of forced laborers.
In 2008, wartime documents surfaced showing that Korean forced laborers were used at Aso’s grandfather’s mine, from which he has distanced himself. Aso kept mum when Japan’s Health and Welfare Ministry acknowledged that other wartime documents showed that the Aso family mine in Fukuoka, southern Japan, also used 300 British, Dutch and Australian prisoners from April 1945 through Japan’s surrender four months later.
