Suga to Head Japan-ROK Lawmaker Group

The Yomiuri Shimbun

11:11 JST, March 5, 2023

Former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will take over as head of the supra-partisan Japan-Korea Parliamentarians’ Union, succeeding former Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga of the Liberal Democratic Party.

The proposal was approved Friday at a board meeting of the lawmakers’ group in Tokyo. The decision will be finalized at the group’s general meeting.

“Japan and South Korea are extremely important neighbors, both in economic and security terms,” Suga said during the board meeting. “I’ll work to develop friendship between the two countries.”

While serving as chief cabinet secretary, Suga was involved in the 2015 agreement with South Korea to resolve the issue of so-called comfort women, among other matters.

Nukaga, who has been chairman since 2013, said at the meeting, “[Mr. Suga] addressed head-on the succession of historical issues that have arisen between Japan and South Korea.”

South Korea is close to resolving the issue of lawsuits regarding former wartime requisitioned workers from the Korean Peninsula, and by appointing a former prime minister as chairman, the union hopes to revitalize exchanges among the lawmakers.