![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/e6b58676-9561-4763-920b-642814a5e060.jpg\")
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President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pose for a commemorative photo at Horyuji Temple, a major cultural heritage site in Nara Prefecture, Japan, on Jan. 14. [JOINT PRESS CORPS] <\/p>\n
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President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi are finalizing the details of a summit in Andong, North Gyeongsang, on May 19, according to Japanese media on Sunday.\u00a0
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The Kyodo News and others reported that Takaichi is expected to travel to Andong for a two-day, one-night visit. A senior Blue House official on the same day only confirmed that “the final date is still being discussed.”
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The meeting would be the third between the two leaders and the latest installment in a “shuttle diplomacy” arrangement that has seen them alternate visits to each other’s hometowns. Lee traveled to Nara Prefecture \u2014 Takaichi’s hometown \u2014 in January for their first summit. Takaichi would now be returning the gesture by visiting Andong, where Lee was born and raised.
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The summit closely follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing, where he is slated to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday and Friday. Trade tensions between Washington and Beijing are expected to dominate those talks, and the outcome is likely to shape the tone of what Seoul and Tokyo discuss regarding China. Both Korea and Japan have been caught in the crossfire of the U.S.-China trade dispute, making the sequencing of the two summits diplomatically significant.
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The countries are also expected to discuss economic security, including energy supply concerns stemming from instability in the Middle East and efforts to strengthen critical mineral supply chains, all of which will be shaped by whatever emerges from the Trump-Xi meeting.
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In defense cooperation, Japan has been pushing for a bilateral Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, which would allow its Self-Defense Forces and the Korean military to share ammunition, fuel and other logistical supplies in emergencies. The Japan News has reported that Tokyo is actively pursuing the pact. Korea’s Ministry of National Defense has denied it is under consideration.
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“Japan will push hard on this,” said Yang Ki-ho, a professor of Japanese studies at Sungkonghoe University. “The question for Korea will be how to calibrate its response.”
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Whether historical grievances will surface is also being watched closely. At their January summit, the two leaders agreed to pursue DNA identification of the remains of forced Korean laborers who died in the 1942 Chosei coal mine tragedy \u2014 a step seen as opening the door to broader historical dialogue.\u00a0
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A senior ruling party official told the JoongAng Ilbo that the focus so far has been on restoring the back-and-forth diplomacy and improving bilateral ties, but added that “the time has come for the two countries to produce tangible results through their summits that go beyond simply improving relations.”\n<\/p>\n
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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BY YOON SUNG-MIN [[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pose for a commemorative photo at Horyuji Temple,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-19894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tokyo","8":"tag-japan","9":"tag-tokyo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}