Japan PM Takaichi says she urged S. Korea President Lee to help ‘ensure regional stability’

NARA, Japan – Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called on South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Jan 13 to help “ensure regional stability”, as Beijing pressures Tokyo over its stance on Taiwan.

The two leaders met in Ms Takaichi’s picturesque home region of Nara in western Japan, days after Mr Lee visited Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing.

They agreed to strengthen cooperation on economic security, regional and global issues, as well as artificial intelligence, according to South Korea’s Presidential Office.

Looming in the background is Japan’s heated diplomatic spat with China, triggered by Ms Takaichi’s suggestion in November 2025 that Japan could intervene militarily if China attacks Taiwan.

China, which regards Taiwan as its own territory, reacted angrily, blocking exports to Japan of “dual-use” items with potential military applications, fuelling worries in Japan that

Beijing could choke supplies of much-needed rare earths

.

Ms Takaichi said she told Mr Lee that, “while advancing Japan-South Korea relations, both countries should cooperate to ensure regional stability and fulfil their respective roles”.

“As the environment surrounding both of our countries becomes ever more severe, our bilateral relations, as well as the cooperation among Japan, South Korea and the United States, are assuming greater importance,” she later told a news conference.

At the beginning of his meeting with Ms Takaichi, Mr Lee said that cooperation between the two US allies “is more important than ever”.

“In this increasingly complex situation and within this rapidly changing international order, we must continue to make progress towards a better future,” Mr Lee added.

They agreed to continue their “shuttle diplomacy” of regular meetings, according to Ms Takaichi, as well as work towards the complete denuclearisation of North Korea.

Mr Lee and Ms Takaichi, who both took office in 2025, last met in October on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation regional summit in Gyeongju, South Korea.

It is Mr Lee’s second visit to Japan since August 2025, when he met Ms Takaichi’s predecessor Shigeru Ishiba.

Bitter memories

Mr Lee and Ms Takaichi had dinner on Jan 13 and are set to visit one of Japan’s oldest temples in Nara the next day.

Mr Benoit Hardy-Chartrand, an East Asian geopolitics expert at Temple University’s Tokyo campus, said: “Behind closed doors, the leaders will certainly discuss the current Japan-China crisis, as Beijing’s retaliatory measures, including export controls, will have an impact on Korea as well.”

Mr Lee said in an interview with Japanese public broadcaster NHK aired on Jan 12 that it was not his place to “intervene or get involved” in the Japan-China row.

“From the standpoint of peace and stability in North-east Asia, confrontation between China and Japan is undesirable,” he said.

“We can only wait for China and Japan to resolve matters amicably through dialogue.”

Mr Hardy-Chartrand said he believed “the South Korean government felt that it was necessary for President Lee to visit Japan not too long after going to China in order to demonstrate that Seoul is not favouring one side over the other”.

Mr Lee and Ms Takaichi were also expected to discuss their relations with the US because President Donald Trump “has put in doubt old certainties and highlighted the importance of strengthening their ties”, he said.

On the bilateral front, bitter memories of Japan’s brutal occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945 have cast a long shadow over Tokyo-Seoul ties.

Mr Lee’s conservative predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol, who declared martial law in December 2024 and was removed from office, had sought to improve relations with Japan.

Mr Lee is also relatively more dovish than Yoon was towards North Korea, and has said that South Korea and Japan are like “neighbours sharing a front yard”. AFP