The Olympic peace has been in effect since last week.

But the appeal to the nations involved to let the disputes rest for the duration of the Olympic Games in Tokyo has not been heard in the neighborly relationship between Japan and South Korea.

On Monday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in canceled his visit to the Japanese capital to open the Games on Friday.

The President's Office in Seoul justified the decision by saying that a visit to Tokyo could not make enough progress in bilateral relations.

Patrick Welter

Correspondent for business and politics in Japan, based in Tokyo.

  • Follow I follow

Moon had hoped that a visit would be combined with a summit meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

But Suga has only signaled an adequate reception for Moon in the past few days, but not in-depth political discussions.

The last serious conversation between the leaders of both countries was in December 2019, when Moon met Suga's predecessor Shinzo Abe in China.

On the sidelines of the June meeting of the Group of Seven in the UK, however, Suga and Moon greeted each other briefly.

Japan's prime minister has not shown any great interest in entering into talks with South Korea in recent months.

Abe had traveled to Pyeongchang, South Korea for the opening of the Winter Olympics in 2018, although both sides were already arguing about how to deal with the South Koreans who were forced into prostitution by the Japanese military during World War II. Since then, decisions by the South Korean Supreme Court have escalated the simmering dispute over compensation for former South Korean forced laborers. Japan's government argues that South Korea is breaking previous agreements and treaties and is waiting for the government to move in Seoul.

The diplomatic dispute was recently fueled by a remark by a senior Japanese diplomat in Seoul. He was quoted as saying that Moon was "masturbating" about the chances of a summit meeting with Suga. The South Korean Foreign Ministry protested, and Seoul was awaiting the diplomat's dismissal. Suga called the comment "extremely inappropriate" on Monday. Japanese media report that the diplomat is to be withdrawn. But it was too late for Moon.

South Korea also knows how to irritate the Japanese. In the Olympic Village in Tokyo, the South Korean delegation had put up posters saying, “I still have the support of 50 million Koreans.” This was an allusion to famous words by Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin, who was his king in the 16th century is said to have said: "I still have twelve warships." After that, the admiral won a decisive battle against a larger Japanese fleet. The International Olympic Committee ordered the South Koreans to remove the banners over the weekend for violating the ban on political propaganda in the Olympic sites.