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Shinzo Abe

In this year’s policy speech, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe described South Korea as Japan’s “most important neighbor that shares our strategic interests.” Just like last year, though, he omitted “fundamental values” from this sentence.

“At the end of last year, Japan and South Korea brought to an end a long-standing issue with our final and irreversible settlement on the issue of the comfort women,” Abe said during the speech, which he delivered to a joint session of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, on Jan. 22. “Since South Korea is our most important neighbor that shares our strategic interests, we will build a cooperative relationship for a new era in order to ensure peace and stability in East Asia.”

During policy speeches in 2013 and 2014, Abe had referred to South Korea as Japan’s “most important neighbor that shares our fundamental values and interests,” but last year he omitted the phrase “fundamental values.” After this, a description of South Korea as a “neighbor sharing the fundamental values of democracy and human rights” was omitted from the website of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from Japan’s Diplomatic Bluebook.

In contrast, a statement by Japan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs congratulating Tsai Ing-wen’s election as president of Taiwan on Jan. 16 referred to Taiwan as “an important partner that shares our fundamental values.”

Abe’s decision to describe South Korea as a country that only shares “strategic interests” and not “fundamental values” appears to reflect unpleasant feelings that still remain even after the Dec. 28 settlement of the comfort women issue. In other words, Abe views South Korea not as a friend that shares values but as just a business partner that he must work with in regard to the issues of China’s rise and North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.

“China’s peaceful rise,” Abe said, “is a great opportunity not only for Japan but also for the world. We will keep working to improve relations under the principle of a reciprocal strategic relationship.”

Abe’s message was followed by a foreign policy address by Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida, whose speech included a reference to Dokdo, a South Korean island claimed by Japan. “Takeshima [the Japanese name for Dokdo] in Shimane Prefecture is the sovereign territory of Japan, and we will continue to clearly communicate Japan’s claims and persist in our response,” Kishida said.

By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent

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