| Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama listens during an exclusive interview with The Korea Times at the newspaper's headquarters in Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
This is the sixth in a series of interviews with political experts and experienced analysts assessing the impact of the ongoing South Korea-Japan trade row after Tokyo removed Seoul from its list of trusted trading partners receiving preferential treatment in exports. ― ED.
Former Japanese PM slams Abe over economic retaliation against Seoul
By Park Ji-won
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should restore relations with South Korea immediately in order to tackle his priority issues such as the repatriation of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea and establishing diplomatic relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang, according to former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
“Japanese PM Shinzo Abe cannot resolve the issue of Japanese abductees by North Korean spies and establish diplomatic relations with North Korea,” unless he improves the Seoul-Tokyo relationship, Hatoyama, who served in the post between 2009 and 2010, said during an exclusive interview with The Korea Times. He was visiting Seoul to participate in the DMZ International Forum on the Peace Economy where he gave a speech about Seoul-Tokyo relations.
Repatriating the abductees is a top priority for Abe, who has emphasized the issue since early in his political career, successfully carving out a support base that later helped him win his first prime-ministership in 2006. Abe said recently he hopes to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on an “unconditional basis.” However, Pyongyang turned down the Japanese PM's offer, demanding Japan settle historical issues first.
During a summit in Pyongyang in 2002, then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il ― the father of the North's current leader Kim Jong-un ― apologized for the abduction issue when he met then Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi. Five abductees were repatriated that year, but no significant progress has been made since then, with the North treating the issue as “settled.”
Abe himself hasn't been able to hold even a single face-to-face meeting with the North Korean leader, relying heavily on U.S. President Donald Trump to serve as his key messenger.
| Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, right, listens during an exclusive interview with The Korea Times at the newspaper's headquarters in Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
The most recent tensions between Seoul and Tokyo stemmed from Japan's recent moves, which Hatoyama said was an apparent response to the South Korean Supreme Court's rulings requiring Japanese companies to pay compensation to surviving South Korean victims of wartime forced labor.
Japan removed South Korea from its whitelist of trusted trading partners, and tensions escalated further when Seoul announced its decision to scrap a bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan, known as the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA).
The GSOMIA is a symbol of security cooperation against regional and North Korean military threats.
Claiming that the swift removal of South Korea from its whitelist was an inappropriate move ordered by the Prime Minister's Office of Japan, the former Japanese PM said the U.S. could act as a mediator between the two countries by convincing Japan to add South Korea to its whitelist again and South Korea to extend the GSOMIA with Japan.
Underlining that the deepening bilateral dispute stems from Japan's colonization of Korea, Hatoyama said, “Japan should face its history with a humble mind.”
He pointed out the Abe administration is making contradictory claims over the wartime-driven historical issue. Abe's administration claims the compensation issue was resolved in 1965. “Japan once made it clear in 1991 during a parliamentary session by Shunji Yanai, then director of the treaty bureau at Japan's foreign ministry, that the individual right to seek compensation for damages from Japan was not completely and finally resolved in the South Korea-Japan 1965 basic treaty.”
| Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, second from left, conducts an exclusive interview with The Korea Times at the newspaper's headquarters in Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
Stressing the importance of “grassroots cooperation” between the peoples of the two countries, Hatoyama mentioned the necessity of holding talks between “educated people” from each to find common ground in resolving the friction.
“I hope the time will come that both Japanese and Korean people learn from each other as they did in the past. In order to do so, I think when Japanese citizens can show they think the aggressor should remain humble and keep apologizing until the victim can forgive them, Korean people will understand Japanese people. Right now, what we need is to make an effort in the private sectors of the two countries and not hate each other even though both governments are at odds with one another.”
Abe's move to amend Constitution won't work
Hatoyama spoke critically of Abe's drift to the right and pandering to Japanese conservatives with his desire to create a so-called strong country with his ambition to change the Japanese Constitution. He also criticized the incumbent leader's encouragement of nationalism and control over the media.
“It is true that the world is shifting to the right and nationalism is gaining power. PM Abe is good at promoting it,” the former PM said. “Behind the promotion, the Abe administration is controlling Japanese media; as a result, the Japanese media doesn't criticize the government and it hides important information from the people.”
However, he ruled out the possibility that Abe would act unilaterally to revise Japan's Constitution to allow the country to participate in or begin wars, citing polls that more than half of Japanese citizens don't want their “peaceful” Constitution changed.
| Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama kneels before a memorial monument for Korean independence fighters tortured to death during the 1910-45 Japanese occupation of Korea, during his visit to the site of a colonial-era prison in Seoul in this Aug. 12, 2015, file photo. Korea Times file |
Who is Yukio Hatoyama?
He was the 93rd Prime Minister of Japan between 2009 and 2010. He grew up in a political family. His grandfather Ichiro Hatoyama also served as prime minister between 1954 and 1956.
Yukio Hatoyama was the leader of the now-defunct liberal Democratic Party of Japan, and played a significant role in taking power from the Liberal Democratic Party in 2009 for the first time in 54 years.
He became the prime minister but resigned in 2010. He retired from politics in 2012 at age 65 and founded his own think tank on peace in the East Asian region.
He has been vocal about various political affairs, criticizing the Abe administration and continuing his work to prioritize relations between Asian countries as well as the U.S., which has been Japan's biggest ally for decades.