Japan’s Defense Minister Koizumi to skip Seoul security forum — Korea Herald
Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi is expected not to attend the annual Seoul Defense Dialogue, which will run from Monday to Wednesday. Japan will instead be represented at the forum by the deputy defense minister, South Korea’s defense ministry said.
Visit to Yasukuni Shrine
As Korea Herald reports, citing Yonhap sources, Koizumi’s absence from the forum may be linked to his visit to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine in August. The exact reason for the decision was not specified.
On August 15, the anniversary of the end of World War II, Koizumi visited the shrine along with other Japanese lawmakers. Yasukuni honors Japanese war dead, including 14 people convicted by international tribunals as Class A war criminals. Visits to the shrine by Japanese leaders have long been criticized by neighboring countries, which view them as glorifying Japan’s militarist past.
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Meetings of defense ministers
Koizumi’s participation in the dialogue had been expected amid active defense contacts between Tokyo and Seoul and warming bilateral relations. His predecessor, Gen Nakatani, attended the Seoul Defense Dialogue last year.
Had Koizumi arrived in Seoul, he and South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-baek would have held their fourth bilateral talks in just over two months. The ministers have already met three times this year, including at a security forum in Singapore in May and during Koizumi’s visit to Seoul in late June, which followed Ahn’s trip to Japan in January.
