South Korea plan will help ‘restore healthy ties,’ says Japan FM

Tokyo on Monday welcomed a South Korean plan to compensate victims of Japan’s forced wartime labor, saying it would help to restore “healthy” ties after years of tensions.

“The Japanese government values the measures announced by the South Korean government today as an effort to restore healthy Japan-South Korea ties after they were put in a very severe situation due to the 2018 judgement,” Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.

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In 2018, Seoul’s Supreme Court ordered some Japanese companies to pay compensation over forced labor, but South Korea now says it hopes for “voluntary contributions” from Japanese firms.

Around 780,000 Koreans were conscripted into forced labor by Japan during the 35-year occupation, according to data from Seoul, not including women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops.

The plan announced by Seoul earlier Monday would see a South Korean foundation compensate victims and their families, primarily with funds from South Korean firms that benefitted from Japan’s 1965 reparations package.

Japan is expected to announce the lifting of some trade restrictions placed on South Korea during the deterioration of ties in recent years, though Hayashi insisted the issue was separate from the compensation plan.

South Korea and Japan are both key regional security allies of the United States, but bilateral ties have long been strained over Tokyo’s brutal 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.

Washington has tried to bring the countries to the table, and cooperation has increased since the election of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol last year.

Japanese media have reported that Yoon could soon visit Tokyo, possibly even for a Japan-South Korea baseball game this week.

Hayashi called for both countries to “cooperate in dealing with various challenges in the international community”.

The plan announced by Seoul does not come with any new apology from Japan, and Hayashi reiterated that the government in Tokyo stands by a 1998 declaration that included an apology.

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