Japanese Media: "Kishida Puts Call with President Moon on Back Burner Amid General Election Concerns"

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is preparing his first policy speech since taking office at the extraordinary Diet session held on the 8th at the House of Representatives in Tokyo. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] Local media analysis suggests that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who took office on the 4th, postponed his first phone call with President Moon Jae-in due to the upcoming general election scheduled for the end of this month.

The Nikkei newspaper reported on the 12th, "The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister's Office (Kantei) shared the view from the beginning that it would be better not to include South Korea in the group of countries with which Prime Minister Kishida should have early phone calls."

Former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who took office in September last year, had his first call with President Moon on the 9th day after his inauguration. Since this day is also the 9th day after Kishida's inauguration, if there is no call with President Moon on this day, the timing of the first call will be later than that of former Prime Minister Suga.

It is known that Japan is coordinating with South Korea on scheduling a call after this day.

In his first policy speech at the National Diet on the 8th, Prime Minister Kishida said regarding Japan-South Korea relations, "In order to restore a sound relationship, we will strongly demand appropriate responses from the South Korean side based on our country's consistent position."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.