A TV screen shows former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who was shot dead during a campaign speech in Nara, Japan, Friday. Yonhap

Yoon to visit Abe memorial altar in Seoul

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Until earlier last week, optimism about Korea-Japan relations after the upper house elections in Japan had dominated in foreign policy circles.

Although President Yoon Suk-yeol was unable to sit down with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a bilateral summit on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain in late June, many experts here predicted that the two leaders would eventually meet for a summit after the July 10 upper house elections in Japan. Kishida's reluctance to sit down with Yoon in Spain for a summit before the election was understood as a diplomatic sign that the Japanese leader was feeling pressured by domestic public opinion against Korea.

That optimism for a post-election Korea-Japan summit is about to change after the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot dead on Friday.

There have been no changes in President Yoon's enthusiasm to sit down with the Japanese leader as soon as possible to mend ties, but the ball is now in Japan's court and Abe's sudden death will complicate the domestic situation in Japan, according to experts.

With Abe's death, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan is expected to gain sympathy votes. According to NHK's exit polls, the LDP and its coalition partner the Komeito party are likely to win between 69 and 83 seats out of the 125 seats that went to polls Sunday, keeping a majority in the upper house.

Choi Eun-mi, a research fellow at the Seoul-based think tank Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said Abe's unexpected death gave Japan's LDP stronger support.

"The turnouts for Japan's elections are generally low, but the assassination of Abe is likely to bring centrist voters out to polling stations to cast their votes for the LDP, while unifying the supporters of the conservative party," Choi told The Korea Times, Sunday.

The LDP was already expected to win the July 10 election, but Choi said its win is now likely to be by an even larger margin.