Will Taro Aso’s past overshadow Japan and South Korea’s bid to settle wartime history?
- Japan’s former PM Taro Aso will meet South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to discuss the topic of Koreans forced into labour by Japanese firms
- Aso’s appointment raised eyebrows, given his family’s wealth was built by using Korean forced labourers during Tokyo’s colonial occupation of the region
Aso’s appointment for the discussions has raised eyebrows in some quarters, however, given that his family’s wealth was in part built with the use of Korean forced labourers and Allied prisoners of war in its Japanese mines.
Others have pointed out that Aso has a reputation for making inappropriate comments that have infuriated segments of domestic and foreign society, and there are fears another unguided aside could set back efforts to build bridges.
“Both sides now agree they want to solve this problem and the visit by Aso is significant as he is the former prime minister, a former foreign and finance minister and even today he is vice-president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party,” said Yuji Hosaka, a professor specialising in Japan-Korea relations at Sejong University in South Korea.
Stephen Nagy, an associate professor of international relations at Tokyo’s International Christian University, agreed that Aso’s “gravitas” within the Japanese government underlines Japan’s desire to reach a lasting solution to the problem and the former prime minister will be able to unequivocally state Tokyo’s position.
“There is now good potential for some kind of behind-closed-doors solution that can be used by both sides to provide a cover for a compromise agreement,” he said.
Criticism from some quarters is “inevitable”, Nagy said, but added: “If both sides can come away with something that is a compromise, then both will be able to say that the biggest achievement is that they are moving forward.”
Hosaka points out, however, that while most Koreans know little about Aso, the South Korean media can be certain to comment on his own family’s links to forced labourers.
It was also learned that Aso Mining Co had used at least 300 POWs in its mines, and as many as 10,000 Korean forced labourers. Aso initially denied his family’s involvement until presented with documentation, whereupon he claimed he could not be held accountable as he was a child during the war.
Aso was himself chairman of Aso Mining from 1973 to 1979, when he went into politics.
Hosaka is hopeful that Aso may make another apology which, coming from a former prime minister and a senior member of a family that employed foreign labourers, might carry additional weight in Seoul.
Comments on social media are less optimistic, with many suggesting Aso might have been sent to Seoul with instructions to dig his heels in and insist South Korea bend to Japan’s position on the matter, although others were more concerned with his well-documented ability to say the wrong thing.
Aso has in the past caused outrage by blaming the nation’s woes on unmarried people because “they don’t give birth” and described Japan as the perfect place for “rich Jews” to live.