Lee Jae-myung to Ishiba, ‘Sharing Front Yard Neighbor’ Xi Jinping to Lee Jae-myung, ‘Never Moving Neighbor’
President Lee Jae-myung said on the 17th that the Korea-Japan relationship is ‘a neighbor sharing the front yard’ to Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba, who is about to step down in the election next month due to the failure of the automobile tariff agreement with US President Trump, and Chinese President Xi Jinping said on the 10th that the President was ‘a neighbor who cannot move’ to Lee.
In his opening remarks at the Korea-Japan summit, President Lee said, “In our country, the relationship between Japan and Korea is called a close but distant country. It is a relationship that cannot be separated, like a neighbor sharing the front yard.” He added, “In particular, as the difficulties of the international trade environment and international relations are increasing, I think that if Korea and Japan, which are close and complementary, cooperate in many areas, it will be of great help to each other.”
Prime Minister Ishiba said during the meeting, “The international situation is becoming extremely serious,” and “I sincerely hope that cooperation and collaboration between Korea and Japan will become a relationship that will be of greater help to the region and the world,” Korean media reported. President Xi Jinping said in a phone call with President Lee on the 10th that “China and South Korea are close neighbors that cannot move,” Xinhua News Agency reported on the 10th.
In his farewell speech on July 4th of last year, Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Shanghai Ming told Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol that “China and South Korea are neighbors that cannot move.”
Reuters reported on the 18th that the meeting between Prime Minister Ishiba and President Trump on a lounge chair at the foot of the Canadian Rockies on the 17th did little to change the gloomy forecast for Japanese industry, which is expected to be hit with an additional 24% tariff scheduled for July 9th.
“The lack of progress could undermine confidence in Prime Minister Ishiba’s diplomacy as he prepares for a fierce Senate election next month, and some political analysts say the election could lead to his resignation,” it added. Reuters reported on the 18th that “President Lee Jae-myung and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba pledged to deepen the relationship that Washington values and China and North Korea watch closely at their first summit,” and that “the two leaders spoke at a side event of the G7 meeting in Canada on the 17th.”
Reuters reported that “Prime Minister Ishiba said in a later press conference that “the importance of South Korea-Japan relations and South Korea-Japan cooperation has not changed at all under the current strategic environment, but rather has become more important,” and that “President Lee said that the two countries have an “inseparable” relationship like “neighbors who share a front yard.” The presidential office said in a statement that “the two leaders discussed ways to maintain and strengthen trilateral cooperation with the United States to respond to geopolitical crises, including the North Korea issue.”
On the other hand, Reuters reported in another article that Prime Minister Ishiba at the G7 in Canada faced the possibility of losing the election due to competition in the July election next month, as Trump’s tariffs have fully taken effect due to failed negotiations.
Mizuho Research & Technologies said the combined Trump tariffs could shave nearly 1 percent of Japan’s gross domestic product.
“The fact that nothing was agreed at the summit could raise questions about the diplomatic skills of the Ishiba government,” Hiroshi Shiratori, a professor of contemporary political analysis at Hosei University, told Reuters.
Political analysts say Ishiba’s LDP ruling coalition will have to struggle to maintain a majority in the upper house, which could likely lead to a repeat of the result in a stronger lower house election in October, which could trigger his resignation, Reuters reported.
“Even if the LDP manages to hold on to a minority government, there is about a 70 percent chance that the LDP will replace its leader,” Michael Kuczek, a political science professor at Tokyo’s Temple University, told Reuters. “If they suffer a big loss, Ishiba should go. They can’t lose two elections in a row.”
Ishiba’s last chance is when Trump and the two leaders attend the NATO summit in The Hague later this month, from June 24 to 26, where they are expected to try again.
“Despite our persistent efforts to find common ground through serious discussions, yesterday’s meeting with President Trump confirmed that there are still gaps in our understanding,” Ishiba told reporters on Tuesday after the G7 summit in Canada.
On December 16th of last year, Chinese Ambassador to Korea Pan Kung said in his speech at the Korea-China Friendship Event that he “trusted the Korean people” regarding the martial law situation on the 3rd, “among the embassies in Korea, he was the fastest to announce that normal life would be possible immediately after the martial law was lifted. This is because he fully understands and trusts the Korean people,” and said at the Baekbeom Memorial Hall that “China-Korea relations are neighbors that cannot move,” and that “the two countries should keep pace with the times as strategic partners.”
On the 19th, the Yomiuri reported on the on-site coverage of the G7 in Canada under the title, “President Lee Jae-bak’s Diplomatic Debut… Meeting with Trump Disappears.”
As a maritime nation, Japan has never used the concept of “front yard” in its diplomatic strategy, while China, as a continental nation, has the most “neighboring countries” in the world and is the core of its diplomatic strategy.
In a maritime nation, the “front yard neighbor” strategy for a trade advantage system can be misunderstood as the “subordinate island nation” approach.
This seems to be a derogatory meaning at the summit.
Claire Ainsley, director of the Progressive Policy Institute and former adviser to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who led the G7 summit in Canada, wrote in a column in the New York Times on the 19th, “The progressive future depends on national identity.”
In her contribution, she said, “Chaotic borders cause psychological instability, and immigration is an issue that progressives avoid, but if handled well, it can be a catalyst that puts national community and citizenship at the center of a new progressive politics.”
She said, “There is a greater prize than defeating the populist right. This is an opportunity to rise above the failures of modern globalization and build a strong, confident, and socially cohesive nation.” She defined “establishing national identity as the new future politics.”
She is director of the Project on Centre-Left Renewal and was Starmer's chief policy adviser from 2020 to 2022, shortly before he became prime minister, and is the author of New Working Class: How to Win Hearts, Minds and Votes (May 2018).
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