Abe counts on Winter Games to polish image

Disagreements between Tokyo and Seoul on the issue of “comfort women” (women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army in occupied territories before and during World War II) was the primary reason why many Japanese were opposed to Abe’s visit. Japan expected the agreement with former South Korean president Park Geun-hye in 2015 to be the “final and irreversible” solution to the “comfort women” issue, and hoped Seoul would remove the statues of “comfort women” from in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul. But President Moon Jae-in, who assumed office in May 2017, claimed that since the agreement did not reflect the victims’ needs, Japan needs to do more to settle the issue. But by deciding to attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Abe has rekindled hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough, which could start a trend of improving political ties in Northeast Asia. If Abe indeed attends the Winter Games, Japan may get more tourists from South Korea and the South Korean government’s support for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. What will really improve Tokyo-Seoul ties is not Abe’s attendance at the Winter Games but the talks between Abe and Moon when the former visits Pyeongchang.
To play an active role in the Korean Peninsula issue and maintain the alliance among the United States, Japan and South Korea, Abe needs a chance to hold talks with Moon and try to break the Tokyo-Seoul diplomatic deadlock.
Moon’s efforts to promote inter-Korean talks have upset its allies. The relations between South Korea and North Korea have improved to a large extent thanks to the talks on Pyongyang’s participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
This made Japan realise that it had to act, especially after South Korea took the initiative to resolve the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue by engaging the North in talks. Washington, too, has been urging Tokyo to take steps to ease tensions with Seoul, because the US needs to maintain its power balance strategy in Northeast Asia through its alliance with Japan and South Korea.
In fact, Tokyo and Seoul both wanted to improve their relations, even though they differed on the 2015 Japan-South Korea pact. That’s why Abe accepted Seoul’s offer of attending the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Games.
Moreover, Abe needs to show more achievements to the Japanese electorate to stabilise his government. And since it is difficult for Abe to convince Moon about the settlement of historical issues, including the “comfort women” issue, because they carry two totally different meanings for peoples in Japan and South Korea, the Japanese prime minister chose sports and cultural matters.
Still, improved Japan-South Korea relations will have little effect on the Korean Peninsula issue, which requires joint efforts of many countries to resolve. 

The author is a professor at the Northeast Asian Studies College, Jilin University.