Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, right, and South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu Back shake hands ahead of their meeting in Seoul on Sept. 8, 2025. (Kyodo)
SEOUL (Kyodo) — Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and his South Korean counterpart, Ahn Gyu Back, agreed Monday in Seoul to bolster communication through reciprocal visits, as the two neighbors seek stable ties despite recent changes in both governments and amid North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.
Nakatani, the first Japanese defense minister to visit South Korea in a decade, also affirmed with Ahn the importance of bilateral security cooperation, as well as trilateral cooperation with the United States.
“The ministers concurred that it is important to steadily advance Japan-South Korea and Japan-South Korea-U.S. defense cooperation in the rapidly changing security environment, and shared the need to develop bilateral defense ties in a future-oriented manner,” the two ministers said in a joint press release.
Their meeting came a day after Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced his resignation amid mounting pressure to take responsibility for the ruling coalition’s loss of its majority in July’s House of Councillors election.
The talks also followed South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s trip to Japan in August, part of efforts to maintain close communication through regular reciprocal visits by the leaders. After a hiatus when ties soured largely over wartime history and other issues, the practice resumed under the predecessors of Ishiba and Lee.
“To strengthen cooperation between the defense authorities of Japan and South Korea in a sustainable manner, it is necessary to build a relationship of trust patiently,” Nakatani told reporters after the meeting.
At the outset of the talks, Ahn acknowledged the “difficult” relations between the two neighbors and noted the “long time” it has taken “for us to come together again in this way.”
The two also affirmed the need to step up regular consultations and personnel exchanges between their defense authorities, including reciprocal visits and meetings of defense ministers.
“Going forward, for the sake of mutually beneficial development, I hope you will visit more often, and I myself will make efforts to visit Japan frequently as well,” Ahn said.
According to the Japanese Defense Ministry, the two countries will aim for a mutual visit once a year.
Nakatani and Ahn welcomed the fact that the first visit to South Korea by a Japanese defense minister since 2015 took place in the 60th anniversary year of the normalization of Japan-South Korea relations in 1965.
Ahn took up the post in July, and the Seoul talks marked his first in-person discussions with Nakatani. The two had previously held a videoconference in early August.
The press release cited an “unwavering commitment” to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and stressed the importance of continuing three-way cooperation with the United States in response to North Korea’s weapons development program.
Nakatani and Ahn also emphasized the need to jointly address the military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, which has deepened since Moscow’s military invasion of Ukraine.
Japan, the United States and South Korea have been stepping up defense cooperation to deter North Korean threats, launching a new trilateral exercise called “Freedom Edge” in June last year. The latest round of the drill will be held later this month.
Nakatani and Ahn also said the two countries will “explore potential” in advanced science and technology fields such as artificial intelligence, unmanned systems and space, according to the press release.
Regarding security, the two countries have been working to move past their dispute over an incident in 2018, when Japan alleged that a South Korean destroyer locked its fire-control radar on a Self-Defense Forces patrol plane in Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
During talks between their defense ministers in June 2024, Japan and South Korea agreed to implement measures to prevent radar lock-on incidents.
Nakatani is scheduled to attend the Seoul Defense Dialogue, an annual multilateral security forum, on Tuesday before returning to Japan the following day.
AloJapan.com