A surprise East Asian love-in

RELATIONS BETWEEN Japan and South Korea are not often cause for a party. But the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two neighbours on June 22nd was a festive affair. Tokyo’s political elite trekked to a jolly reception put on by the South Korean embassy. Ishiba Shigeru, Japan’s prime minister, called for the countries to “join hands”; two of his predecessors made toasts. Japanese politicians beamed at photographers while clutching South Korea’s ambassador.

Scenes such as these were far from guaranteed when South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae-myung, took office at the start of the month. Relations between the two countries have tended to sour whenever Mr Lee’s outfit, the left-of-centre Democratic Party (DP), is in power. In opposition, Mr Lee accused South Korea’s conservative president at the time, Yoon Suk Yeol, of being too soft on South Korea’s former colonial overlords (Mr Yoon had tried to solve a long-running spat about whether Japanese companies should pay additional compensation to wartime forced labourers). When Mr Yoon was impeached for declaring martial law last year, many in Japan expected tetchy times to return.

But during his campaign Mr Lee promised a “pragmatic” foreign policy—and so far that is what his country has got. His first phone call went to America’s president, but his second was to Mr Ishiba. (Moon Jae-in, the previous DP president, called Xi Jinping of China second instead.) The tone was surprisingly warm, people familiar with the call say. On June 17th the two leaders held their first in-person meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada; South Korea’s presidential office later released photographs of Mr Lee smiling broadly during the encounter. The following day, fighter jets from both countries flew alongside American F-16s in trilateral military exercises over the seas between Japan and South Korea.

Longtime observers of the relationship know these grins can flip in about as much time as it takes to say “Dokdo”. Those tiny islands, which South Korea controls and Japan claims (and calls Takeshima), are just one of many potential flashpoints bestowed by their bitter shared history. Mr Yoon engineered a compromise on the forced-labour dispute that was unpopular at home and could yet fall apart. While 46% of Japanese reckon that historical issues have been resolved, only 17% of South Koreans do, according to a recent poll by a pair of Japanese and South Korean newspapers. The 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in the second world war—and thus Korea’s liberation—comes in August. South Koreans will be listening closely to how Mr Ishiba accounts for Japan’s imperial past.

But two big forces are pushing the oft-distant neighbours together. One is Donald Trump. Japan and South Korea, both American allies, face similar tariff threats from Mr Trump; teaming up can help them face him down. Writers at Yomiuri, a conservative Japanese daily, and Hankyoreh, a left-wing South Korean one, have often taken lines mistrustful of each other’s countries; but in recent weeks both papers have published editorials calling urgently for closer co-operation to deal with trade challenges. And shortly before being named to his post, South Korea’s new trade minister, Yeo Han-koo, called for joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the mega-free-trade deal that was salvaged by Japan after Mr Trump pulled America out during his first term.

The other force is generational change. Young Japanese and Koreans are big fans of each other’s culture. Over 3m Japanese visited South Korea last year, while 8.8m Korean visitors came to Japan—equivalent to nearly one-fifth of the population. In honour of the 60th anniversary of bilateral ties, the two governments set up temporary fast-track lines for each other’s citizens at passport control at four airports in Tokyo, Seoul, Fukuoka and Busan. For Japan, it was the first-ever entry lane dedicated to visitors from a single country.

The young are less focused on the past than their parents or grandparents are. They see each other as peers facing common threats. That urges co-operation: polls find a majority of Japanese and South Koreans want their two countries to work more closely on defence. The toothy photos that Mr Lee published after meeting Mr Ishiba show how much has changed at home. These days South Korea’s public does not demand that its leaders scowl at Japan. ■