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Time to ‘fill the remaining half’ of a glass

Published: 29 Sep. 2024, 20:12

Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) elected its former secretary-general Shigeru Ishiba as the new leader of the governing party last Friday. As Japan adopted the parliamentary system, Ishiba will be appointed as the 102nd prime minister of Japan in an extraordinary session of the legislature on Oct. 1. We hope his election will help improve Korea-Japan relations on the occasion of the 60th anniversary next year of the normalization of the bilateral relations.

Ishiba, a nonmainstream politician, was elected head of the LDP after Prime Minister Fumio Kishda declared he wouldn’t extend his term for another two years. Ishiba, with no faction of his own, went through a runoff election after no other candidate grabbed a majority vote from party members. In the first round of the vote, Ishiba was second after Sanae Takaichi — the hardline Minister of State for Economic Security and a protégé of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. But Ishiba won a majority vote in the runoff.

After being elected as a Diet member in 1986, Ishiba, a 12-term lawmaker representing Tottori Prefecture, served as defense minister; agriculture, forestry and fisheries minister; and secretary-general of the conservative party under Abe. We welcome his election victory as it raises our expectations for his constructive role in bettering the Korea-Japan relations.

Ishiba showed a forward-looking attitude toward the past issue of the two countries. As a Christian, he kept his distance from paying tribute at the Yasukuni Shrine and raised a moderate voice about thorny past issues, including former sex slaves and forced labor during the colonial days. What attracts our attention is what actions he will take in response to President Yoon Suk Yeol’s proposal to resolve the forced labor dispute through third-party compensation.

2025 marks the 60th year of the normalization of the two countries’ relations. Ishiba once expressed hope for “returning to the amicable bilateral ties during the Keizo Obuchi-Kim Dae-jung governments in the late 1990s.” Would Ishiba set a milestone in the bilateral relations? We hope he will “fill the remaining half of a cup” after President Yoon filled the other half first.

Ishiba will likely succeed the Kishida Cabinet’s diplomatic and security stance, as seen in the former defense minister’s earlier promise to create “the Asian version of NATO to deal with nuclear and missile threats from North Korea” to ultimately share U.S. nuclear weapons. President Yoon is expected to meet with Ishiba during the November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru. We hope the two leaders demonstrate win-win cooperation for the two countries for a better future.