Prime Minister Kishida's ”low approval rating” poses a ”risk” to improving Japan-Korea relations: South Korean report

The ``improvement of Japan-South Korea relations,'' which the leaders of Japan, the United States, and South Korea unanimously cite as their greatest diplomatic achievement, is facing potential concerns. This is precisely the ``low approval rating'' of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Prime Minister Kishida emphasized his accomplishment of ``restoring the difficult-to-understand relationship between Japan and South Korea,'' and expressed his intention to ``link the trend of improving relations between the two countries to economic cooperation,'' in an effort to find a breakthrough.
However, there remains the possibility that there will be risks to improving bilateral relations in the future. On the occasion of the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit held in San Francisco last week, Yoon Seo-kyo
South Korean President Yoon Seok-Yeol and Prime Minister Kishida spent time together, including a roundtable discussion at Stanford University and a startup roundtable.
The Yomiuri Shimbun said, ``The attendance of the leaders of Japan and South Korea at such an event is due to the relationship between the two countries.
The purpose is to communicate the improvement in the situation both domestically and internationally." It is said that this schedule between the leaders of Japan and South Korea was made at the strong request of the Japanese side. The Japanese media said Prime Minister Kishida was behind this.
received a low approval rating. Prime Minister Kishida's approval rating remained in the 20% range in major public opinion polls this month, a new low. In some quarters, there is even talk of him being the next prime minister.
If the next prime minister with far-right tendencies is to take office, there is a risk that his hard-line statements on historical issues will arouse the sentiments of the South Korean people and test the relationship between the two countries once again.
Choi Woong-mi, a policy research member at the Korea Asan Policy Research Institute, said, ``Even if Japan's prime minister changes, there is no chance that the Liberal Democratic Party's foreign policy will suddenly reverse.''
``However, if a prime minister with strong conservative right-wing tendencies appears and the historical issues between Korea and Japan are reignited, we cannot expect him to take a positive attitude or make statements.''
Ta.