Chronologies
Japan - Korea
Chronology from Oct 2010 to Dec 2010
: Japanese Foreign Minister Maehara Seiji says that Japan should enhance bilateral discussions with North Korea on issues of Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs and the abduction issue.
: The Sunrise Party of Japan decides not to join the ruling coalition.
: South Korean military conducts its largest air and ground firing drills of the year.
: Japan and South Korea reach an open skies agreement for civil aviation between Narita and Incheon airports to be effective summer 2013.
: South Korea and Japan sign a civilian nuclear pact that allows them to use and transfer nuclear-power technologies between the two countries.
: Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Sengoku Yoshito clarifies Prime Minister Kan’s remarks saying that the Japanese government is not considering the possibility of dispatching the Self-Defense Forces to the Korean Peninsula.
: Japan’s Six-Party Talks Envoy Saiki Akitaka and Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei meet in Beijing and agree to make joint efforts to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
: Prime Minster Kan during his meeting with the families of Japanese abductees by North Korea says that the government must consider a plan to dispatch the Self-Defense Forces to rescue the abductees in the event of a contingency on the Korean peninsula.
: US Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa meet in Tokyo and agree to enhance trilateral cooperation between Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul.
: Japan expresses reservation over a top US military officer’s suggestion of joining joint military drills of the US and South Korean militaries.
: South Korean and Japanese lawmakers meet in Seoul and exchanges views on reparations for South Korean forced laborers.
: The approval rating of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Kan drops to 25 percent while disapproval rating rose to 65 percent.
: Foreign Ministers of South Korea, the US, and Japan hold a trilateral meeting in Washington and denounce North Korea’s shelling of Yeongpyeong and urge China to put pressure on the North.
: Japan and US conduct joint military exercise Keen Sword in waters near Japan. The South Korean military sends observers for the first time.
: Japan tells China that now is not an appropriate time to resume the Six-Party Talks on the North’s denuclearization program.
: A poll released by Dentsu Inc. shows that an average of 42.2 percent of people polled in nine countries in Asia think that Japan’s influence in their countries has decreased.
: South Korea and the US hold joint military exercises that include a US nuclear-powered aircraft in the Yellow Sea.
: Pro-Seoul Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan) expresses anger over the North’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island.
: President Lee and Prime Minster Kan agree to work closely to confront provocations by North Korea.
: North Korea fires some 170 artillery shells on a South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island killing two South Korean marines and two civilians.
: President Lee and Prime Minister Kan meet on the sidelines of APEC. South Korea and Japan sign a treaty that confirms the return of 1,205 Korean cultural treasures including royal scripts taken during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
: Japan hosts APEC Leaders Meeting.
: South Korea hosts G20 Summit.
: Prime Minister Kan, President Lee, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao meet on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Vietnam.
: A group of Japanese and South Korean scholars release a study commissioned by the two governments in which they conclude that Japan’s annexation of Korea was coerced in the face of opposition from Koreans.
: Japanese Prime Minister Kan Naoto and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEAM) and discuss bilateral relations.