The President of the Upper House of Japan, Akiko Santo, wants S. Korea to take back what it said about Emperor Emeritus Akihito. The incident added another problem between the two neighboring countries. (Image via Mainichi.jp)

Japan demands an apology from S. Korea after comments to Emperor Emeritus Akihito

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Politics & Economic
News Flash Japan
Nov 01, 2019
1563
Regarding an “unpleasant” comment by South Korea (S. Korea) against Japan’s Emperor Emeritus Akihito, Japan sent a letter to S. Korea to take back what it said.

Reportedly on Thursday, President of the House of Councilors of Japan, Akiko Santo, demanded the S. Korean National Assembly Speaker, Moon Hee-sang, to retract his comment.

Moon Hee-sang is going to represent S. Korea in the upcoming parliamentary members of the Group of 20 (G-20) summit on 4 November in Tokyo, and Akiko Santo is going to chair the meeting. However, there will not be any bilateral meeting between Santo and Moon.

In February, Moon Hee-sang urged Emperor Emeritus Akihito to apologize to S. Korea for forcing S. Korean women to be comfort women for the Japanese soldiers before he abdicated in April.

Furthermore, Moon also referred to Emperor Emeritus Akihito as the “son of the main culprit of the war crimes”. Moon received huge backlashes for the comment.

The S. Korean speaker later apologized for the comment. However, Santo still holds a grudge against Moon. In September, she referred to the comment by Moon as “incredibly rude” and “unacceptable” as what she said to the S. Korean Ambassador for Japan, Nam Gwan-pyo.

Santo stated that she had received a letter of apology from Moon in October. She replied to the letter with dissatisfaction, demanding S. Korea to retract its rude comment. However, S. Korea did not respond.

Regarding the comfort women issue, Japan stated that it has been resolved in the 2015 treaty. However, as the current President of S. Korea, Moon Jae-in, rose to power in 2017, he stated that the treaty could not compensate the victims.

With this issue, added with wartime labor compensation and whitelist omission between both countries, the bilateral relations between Japan and S. Korea have sunk to their lowest in years. S. Korea has been accusing Japan of being irresponsible for its wartime crime during Japan’s invasion over the Korean Peninsula (1910 - 1945) during the WWII era.

Source: https://bit.ly/2JDrZ68