Asahi Shimbun’s article on ancient Korea-Japan relations

The Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun carried a leading article to introduce the Dong-A Ilbo’s series to mark the 50th anniversary of the normalization of South Korea-Japan diplomatic ties. The series titled "Korea and Japan, toward becoming new neighbors" has been serialized in Seoul’s daily from June 15. It is unprecedented for a Japanese daily to introduce foreign media’s series as its main article.

Titled "Ancient exchanges between Japan and Korea, travel to look back on the land with old associations," the article in the general news page of the Asahi Shimbun’s evening paper for the Osaka region introduced the Dong-A Ilbo’s series in detail, saying, “June 22 marks the 50th anniversary of the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and Korea that normalized diplomatic ties. While disputes continue over recognition on the history during Japanese colonial rule era, there is a movement in Korea to pay attention to exchanges between the two nations in the ancient times.”

Akira Nakano, Asahi Shimbun’s staff writer who wrote the article, has joined a trip to Japan by the Dong-A Ilbo team for news coverage in April. “Ha Jeong-min, a journalist from Korea’s major daily Dong-A Ilbo, visited Kyoto City which houses the tomb of Emperor Kanmu’s biological mother Takanono Niigasa,” said the Japanese journalist in his article. “Emperor Kanmu, who had a Korean descendent mother, was a leader who had a clear understanding that Japan existed in the international relations and in the Northeast Asia,” said the city’s history director Mitsuo Inoue, who was quoted in the article.

To share the intention with the Dong-A Ilbo, the article also quoted the series and said, “‘What is left to descendants of Korea and Japan is how to become new neighbors by restoring the relations between ancient Korea and Japan," said Heo Moon-myeong, international desk chief of the Dong-A Ilbo.

Ueda Masaaki, professor emeritus of Kyoto University and the historian specialized in the Korea-Japan exchange history, said, “It is important to shed new light on the accumulated exchanges and friendly relations between the two nations from the ancient times as we are marking the 50th anniversary (of normalization of the diplomatic ties). Rather than being bound by relations between two governments, now is the time to focus on exchanges among citizens of the two nations.”

bae2150@donga.com