Plans are being made for Gen Nakatani to become the first Japanese defense minister to visit South Korea in about 10 years, multiple government officials said on Aug. 21.
Under the arrangement, Nakatani will meet with Ahn Gyun-back, South Korea’s minister of national defense, on Sept. 8 in Seoul, they said.
Nakatani, in fact, was the last Japanese defense chief to visit South Korea. His planned return there reflects his strong personal commitment to enhance Tokyo-Seoul relations.
Before the defense chiefs’ meeting, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung is scheduled to visit Japan on Aug. 23 for a summit with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. It will be Lee’s first trip to Japan since taking office in June.
The two leaders are expected to reaffirm the importance of Japan-South Korea relations.
The defense ministers’ meeting is expected to cover security cooperation in light of concerns about North Korea, including its ballistic missile launches and its military cooperation with Russia.
They will also likely emphasize the importance of the Japan-South Korea and Japan-U.S.-South Korea security frameworks.
During his visit, Nakatani will participate in the Seoul Defense Dialogue, a multilateral meeting for deputy defense ministers held in the South Korean capital, the officials said.
In addition, he is seeking to hold talks with Chung Dong-yong, South Korea’s unification minister, who is responsible for inter-Korean relations.
At the end of last year, Nakatani was trying to arrange a trip to South Korea, but the plan was postponed due to political instability in Seoul.
Nakatani has consistently told those around him that “the Japan-U.S., Japan-South Korea and Japan-U.S.-South Korea alliances are crucial” for Japan’s security.
Since the Defense Ministry was renamed and upgraded from the Defense Agency in 2007, only two defense ministers have visited South Korea: Toshimi Kitazawa in 2011 and Nakatani in 2015.
Japan-South Korea relations have cooled in recent years, partly due to the 2018 radar incident.
Japan said a South Korean Navy destroyer had locked its fire-control radar system on a Maritime Self-Defense Force patrol aircraft, but Seoul denied the allegation.
The dispute heightened mutual distrust at the operational level.
However, during a Japan-South Korea defense ministerial meeting in June last year, both sides agreed on measures to prevent radar lock-on incidents without clarifying the facts of what happened in 2018.
In response to the agreement, Shin Won-sik, then South Korea’s defense minister, visited Japan in July last year. It was the first such trip by a South Korean defense chief in 15 years.
In November, Nakatani boarded the South Korean Navy’s amphibious assault ship Marado, which was docked at the MSDF Yokosuka Base in Kanagawa Prefecture.
He was the first sitting Japanese defense minister to board a South Korean naval vessel, and the event improved defense exchanges between the two countries.
Japan’s Defense Ministry expressed optimism concerning plans for the Ishiba-Lee summit and the defense minister meeting in Seoul.
“If we can confirm the importance of cooperation at a high level, it will make interactions at the operational level easier,” a person related to the ministry said.
AloJapan.com