[Column] How the two leaders can be different

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[Column] How the two leaders can be different



Kim Hyun-ki
The author is the Tokyo bureau chief of the JoongAng Ilbo.

Japan’s biggest hero today is the World Baseball Classic [WBC] MVP Shohei Ohtani. Wherever I go, I hear about Ohtani. Unlike Ichiro, who upset Korea 17 years ago by saying, “Korea won’t defeat Japan for the next 30 years,” Ohtani is known to have both great skills and personality. Many Japanese friends said, “I cried in my heart” over Ohtani’s speech shortly before the final match.

The following is what he said when he called fellow players together in the locker room. “I will say only one thing. Today, let’s stop admiring players in the other team. [Paul] Goldschmidt is at the first base, [Mike] Trout is in the centerfield, and [right fielder] Mookie Betts is next to him. They are amazing players many have heard of. But you can’t defeat them if you admire them. We’re here today to get over them and get to the top, so let’s abandon your admiration for them and only think about winning. Now let’s get out!”

Of course, his words alone did not unite the team. Even though he was tired, he gained trust by signing for fans for one hour, picking up trash from the stadium and being strict about self-control. Ohtani is a spiritual savior who helped boost confidence in Japan in an era of low confidence due to the country’s declining economic might and outdated digital technology.

When it comes to building momentum, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishda does not fall behind Ohtani. His approval rating, which fell to the 30 percent range, has escalated to the 50 percent level. The driving force is diplomacy. What stands out particularly is the unique composure of Kishida’s diplomacy. He does not have interviews to promote or exaggerate his accomplishments. In Japan, his trip to Ukraine did not get much attention due to the WBC semifinal on March 21 and the final on March 22. But Kishida went to the country in Europe in time for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia. That was a thoroughly calculated trip. Photos of Xi-Vladimir Putin and Kishida-Volodymyr Zelenskyy were juxtaposed on the front pages of newspapers around the world. All of a sudden, Kishida became the leader of the free world against Xi and Putin.

The same could be said of the recent summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Kishda in Tokyo. In Korea, it is said to be “Japan’s complete victory,” but in Japan, there is no such self-praise. Instead, every word reflects concern and prudence. When Seoul intentionally leaked the story that the two leaders drank poktanju — a boilermaker of soju and beer — with their arms intertwined, Tokyo showed a reserved and refined response by simply calling it “a fun drinking outing.”

There are no cheering squads such as BTS, girl group Blackpink or heads of large companies during the Japanese prime minister’s visit overseas. The person in charge would just do his job without making a fuss and get evaluated for his action. That helps explain why the opposition gladly exempted parliamentary approval for Kishida’s trip to Ukraine.
 
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishda, right, meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, March 21. [UPI]

What stood out in the photos of Korea’s overseas missions heads having dinner with their boss Monday was the seating arrangement. Ambassadors to the U.S. and Japan sat next to the president and his wife. During the liberal Moon Jae-in administration, ambassadors to China and Russia sat next to the president. People tend to find meaning in what they see rather than what others think. In this regard, the seating of ambassadors to the U.S. and Japan next to the president symbolizes the normalization of Korean diplomacy.

But the problem is the gap between will and reality. Tokyo changed imperial Japan’s “forced conscription” of Koreans during World War II into “participation” in its elementary school textbook review Tuesday. Since the summit, Yoon has been criticized for “giving up vital organs only to be slapped in the back.” In fact, the revision of the textbook is the Japanese government’s final touch on its “20-year plan to erase history,” which started in 2001. That is a routine practice every March. But the issue will not stop there. Many more uncomfortable factors are waiting in line — Japan’s foreign policy blue book, the discharge of contaminated water from Fukushima, restoration of the deal on compensation for Japanese military sexual slavery and the listing of the Sado mine as a World Heritage Site, to name a few.

I don’t believe that Yoon decided to normalize the bilateral relations even without expecting as much. The president is being tested. As Ohtani said, it is a fierce diplomatic battlefield in which one cannot survive just by vaguely admiring or wishing. It is hard to get through the rough waves of the Korea Strait (“Genkai Sea” in Japan) with the tough slogan, “Follow me!”

Korean people would have shared Yoon’s desperation and emotion if he had invited survivors of the wartime forced labor to his presidential office in Yongsan and asked them to “rebuke my decision to normalize relations with Japan” rather than making a dry 23-minute solo speech at the Cabinet meeting. Again, people react to what they see.
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