Tokyo considers it necessary to improve relations with Seoul, which deteriorated back in 2019, said Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi. According to him, the Japanese side stands for the development of cooperation with South Korea.

As the head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry noted, strengthening relations between the two countries is necessary against the backdrop of a difficult world situation. He also added that the Japanese authorities are positive about a possible meeting of the leaders of the two states, but at the moment there are still no concrete terms for negotiations.

Japanese-South Korean relations deteriorated three years ago after a series of mutual accusations. The aggravation was provoked by a number of decisions of the courts of South Korea in relation to Japanese companies, according to which firms were obliged to pay compensation to the descendants of South Korean workers involved in their factories during the years of the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula.

In Tokyo, these demands were rejected, referring to the settlement of all claims with the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two states. As a result, the conflict of the parties led to the fact that they deleted each other from the list of states eligible for accelerated imports of products. However, since 2021, there has been talk in both countries about the need to improve relations.