Chronologies
Japan - Korea
Chronology from Jan 2022 to May 2022
: South Korea’s special delegation meets Prime Minister Kishida. He says “there is no time to waste in improving Japan-South Korea relations” and reiterates that “strategic cooperation between Japan and South Korea, and among Japan, the US and South Korea, is more necessary than ever.”
: South Korean special delegation meets Hayashi and Trade Minister Hagiuda Koichi and discusses bilateral issues and export controls.
: President-elect Yoon announces plans to send a special delegation to Japan from April 24-28 for policy consultations. The delegation will be led by five-term lawmaker and vice National Assembly Speaker Chung Jin-suk. This will be Yoon’s second special delegation, after the one that visited the US in early April.
: South Korean government officially approves plan to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). This would become the second FTA with both Korea and Japan as members, after the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
: Four-day “Non-Freedom of Expression Exhibition 2022” opens in Tokyo, featuring the Statue of Peace, which is a statue symbolizing comfort women.
: Japan announces additional sanctions against North Korea in response to its ICBM launch last week. The new sanctions target six North Koreans, three Russians and four Russian entities for their involvement in North Korea’s nuclear and missile program, subjecting them to an asset freeze.
: Kim Eun-hye, spokeswoman for President-elect Yoon reiterates that Yoon’s stance against Japan’s distortion of history remains unchanged, after some criticisms that he did not directly condemn the recent Japanese action to change some of their history textbooks.
: President-elect Yoon’s spokeswomen Kim clarifies that while the Yoon administration will seek stronger security cooperation with the US and Japan, it will not seek to hold trilateral combined military exercises.
: Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology announces completion of textbook screenings for next year, with removal of words such as “wartime” and “forced” from some history textbooks. The South Korean foreign ministry protests the decision by summoning the deputy chief of mission of the Japanese embassy in Seoul Kumagai Naoki, calling it a distortion of history, a claim rejected by the Japanese.
: President-elect Yoon meets Japanese ambassador to South Korea Koichi Aiboshi and calls for Korea-Japan relations to improve in a “future-oriented way” and for it to be “urgently restored to a good relationship as before.”
: South Korea’s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Noh Kyu-duk and Director-General of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Funakoshi speak on the phone and call out North Korea’s firing of a ICBM for breaking its self-imposed moratorium on ICBM testing.
: Busan City Government releases a plan to prepare for Japan’s scheduled release of wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2023.
: US Special Envoy for North Korea Sung Kim, South Korea’s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Noh Kyu-duk and Director-General of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Funakoshi Takehiro hold trilateral phone talk to discuss recent North Korean provocations, including tests of an ICBM system.
: Prime Minister Kishida and President-elect Yoon speak on the phone for the first time since Yoon’s victory. They agreed on the importance of improving ties and resolving pending issues. Kishida is the second leader to speak with Yoon, after President Joe Biden.
: Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio congratulates South Korean president-elect Yoon Seok-yul for his victory in the presidential election, saying that “healthy bilateral relations are indispensable.”
: South Korean President Moon Jae-in calls on Japan to “squarely face history” and “take leadership as an advanced nation” during a speech commemorating the March 1st Independence Movement.
: South Korea opens the National Memorial of the Korean Provisional Government, a new museum in Seoul dedicated to the history of the Korean Provisional Government.
: Seoul Central District Court dismisses damage lawsuits filed by two former Korean wartime force laborers against Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Kumagai Gumi Co. Each sought 100 million won ($83,800) in compensation. The court did not explain its ruling, but many believe it to be over the expiration of the statute of limitations, like previous rulings.
: South Korean FM Chung meets UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay in Paris and expresses concerns over Japan’s nomination of the Sado mine to the UNESCO World Heritage list.
: Director-general for Asia and Pacific affairs at the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lee Sang-ryeol calls in the deputy chief of mission of the Japanese embassy in Seoul Naoki Kumagai to protest “Takeshima Day,” an annual event about the dispute islet that is attended by Japanese officials.
: South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi hold bilateral talks in Hawaii to discuss North Korea, shared history, and other bilateral issues. This is Hayashi’s first in-person bilateral meeting with Chung since he took office in October 2021. Chung, Hayashi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meet for a trilateral meeting the same day, and call for North Korea to stop provocations and return to dialogue.
: US Special Envoy for North Korea Sung Kim, South Korea’s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Noh Kyu-duk, and Director-General of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Funakoshi Takehiro meet in Hawaii to discuss ways to restart dialogue with North Korea.
: US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook, and Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi hold trilateral phone talk to discuss the North Korean missile threat and trilateral cooperation.
: South Korea launches a government-private task force to respond to Japan’s nomination of the Sado mine to the UNESCO World Heritage list.
: South Korea’s Deputy Defense Minister Kim Man-ki, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ratner, and Japan’s Director General for Defense Policy Masuda Kazuo hold phone talks to discuss North Korea’s missile threat, reaffirm trilateral cooperation and reiterates plans to hold a trilateral defense ministerial in the future.
: South Korea’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae vows to respond to Japan’s nomination of the Sado mine in a “systematic and omnidirectional manner.” South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong lodges a protest during a phone call with Japanese foreign minister Hayashi, voicing his “deep disappointment” over Japan’s nomination.
: US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun, and Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister Mori Takeo hold trilateral phone call to discuss North Korea’s missile launches and denuclearization efforts.
: RCEP (the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) takes effect for South Korea. This 15-member free trade agreement is the first to have both South Kore and Japan as members.
: Japan’s Cabinet approves plan to submit the nomination of the mine on Sado Island to the UNESCO World Heritage list. Japan submits a letter of recommendation to the UNESCO World Heritage Center the same day.
: South Korea’s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Noh Kyu-duk and Director-General of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Funakoshi Takehiro hold bilateral phone talk to discuss North Korea’s launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile the same day.
: Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio announces plans to nominate the mine on Sado Island for the 2023 UNESCO World Heritage designation. South Korea protests because of the mine’s ties to Korean forced labor during World War II, which may have included as many as 2,000 laborers.
: Japanese embassy in Seoul sends back the Lunar New Year gift box from South Korea’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, claiming the box contains an illustration that resembles the disputed islet of Dokdo/Takeshima.
: South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs protests Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa’s remarks reiterating Japan’s claim to the disputed islet of Dokdo/Takeshima during a parliamentary speech.
: US Special Envoy for North Korea Sung Kim, South Korea’s Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Noh Kyu-duk, and Director-General of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Funakoshi Takehiro hold phone talks to discuss North Korea’s missile launch.
: South Korea’s Deputy Defense Minister Kim Man-ki, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner, and Japan’s Director General for Defense Policy Masuda Kazuo hold phone talks to discuss North Korea’s recent missile tests and reaffirm trilateral cooperation.
: Supreme Court of South Korea dismisses second appeal filed by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries against the forced sale of two of its patents to compensate forced labor victims.