October 1, 2025
BUSAN – The top leaders of South Korea and Japan on Tuesday agreed to collaborate to tackle shared societal challenges such as their aging populations, urban concentration and suicide, as President Lee Jae Myung hosted outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Tuesday in their last official meeting.
The relevant authorities of the two countries tasked with demographic issues, balanced economic growth, lacking agricultural self-sufficiency, emergency prevention and suicide will “continue to coordinate” on a regular basis by sharing experiences and cases of policy implementation, according to the joint document released after the summit in Busan.
“I expect the ties between South Korea and Japan to become very close, as we put our heads together in the fields of not only societal issues but also economic issues, security issues and the mutual understanding of emotions,” Lee said during the summit. “I expect today’s summit to lay a cornerstone for rebranded Korea-Japan relations.”
Ishiba said he was glad to meet Lee on his final official diplomatic mission before leaving the top office, adding that he hoped the two countries “share experiences and wisdom” to deal with their common challenges. Before the summit in Busan, Ishiba paid respect at the tomb of Lee Soo-hyun, a Korean student who was killed while rescuing a Japanese man at a train station in Tokyo in 2001.
Lee was quoted as saying by his spokesperson Kang Yu-jung that Ishiba’s visit to the grave demonstrates how far the relationship between South Korea and Japan could improve. Kang, however, did not elaborate what Lee said about Ishiba’s departure from office.
The talks lasted for about an hour and the leaders walked shoulder to shoulder at an outdoor venue nearby. Before Tuesday, Lee and Ishiba last adopted a joint document between the leaders of South Korea and Japan for the first time in 17 years during Lee’s visit to Tokyo in late August.
Following the talks, Ishiba and his spouse Yoshiko Ishiba went to a dinner hosted by Lee, which featured reputed energy-boosting dishes such as brown croaker, black-skinned chicken and abalone. Lee’s wife Kim Hea Kyung could not attend the event as she was diagnosed with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo with symptoms of dizziness and ordered to rest.
The summit came amid growing anticipation that the two leaders could set the tone to overcome unresolved historical grievances between Korea and Japan — primarily Japan’s sexual slavery of Korean women and forced labor during its 1910-45 colonial rule — before Ishiba departs from his post.
Ishiba offered to resign as prime minister in September and is expected to hand his title over to another member of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who is to be elected on Saturday.
Last week, in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Ishiba said that no country “can forge the path to a bright future unless it squarely faces history.”
“We must never again repeat the devastation of war,” Ishiba also said, according to Tokyo’s provisional translation of his speech, “On the anniversary of the war’s end this August, I renewed my vow to engrave that in my heart.”
Lee said during the summit that Lee agreed to Ishiba’s stance to confront the past and move toward the bright future, according to spokesperson Kang. Earlier on Monday, National security adviser Wi told reporters that Ishiba’s UN speech indicates that he holds “a unique view toward the past historical issues (between South Korea and Japan), which differentiates him from other Japanese politicians.”
Lee and Ishiba first met on the margins of the Group of Seven summit in Canada in June and later when Lee flew to Tokyo in late August, before his summit with US President Donald Trump at the White House. During the second meeting, Lee proposed that Ishiba come visit somewhere other than Seoul.
The presidential office has viewed Ishiba’s visit to South Korea as not only a milestone marking the restoration of “shuttle diplomacy” between the two countries — in which frequent trips are made by the two leaders to cement ties — but also a catalyst for joint action to tackle population outflow in remote areas stemming from urban concentration.
consnow@heraldcorp.com