JAPAN: Japanese and Koreans in Tokyo express hopes for South Korea's first female president

Record ID: 466798

  • Title: JAPAN: Japanese and Koreans in Tokyo express hopes for South Korea's first female president
  • Date: 20th December 2012
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (DECEMBER 20, 2012) (REUTERS) SHOP IN JAPAN'S KOREAN TOWN IN SHINOKUBO SELLING SOUTH KOREAN POP PARAPHERNALIA VARIOUS OF PEOPLE BROWSING OVER GOODS (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) 25-YEAR-OLD EXCHANGE STUDENT KIM GUN-JAE SAYING: "I am here in Japan because I like Japan but recently there have been problems with Takeshima, we call it Dokdo in South Korea, and I really would just prefer to hear good things during the time I am in Japan" MORE OF SHOP SELLING K-POP PARAPHERNALIA (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) 22-YEAR-OLD PAK HAN-JIN SAYING: "I want education to improve and I want Korea to gain in national power as well." PEOPLE WALKING ON STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) 45-YEAR-OLD MASAHARU ISHIKI SAYING: "There are many problems including Takeshima and the issue with the wartime comfort women. One side has to back down but both sides refuse to. That's why the relationship will remain the same or deteriorate." MORE OF PEOPLE WALKING ON THE STREETS
  • Embargoed: 4th January 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2S7QMXSOUXNCQPZQ2I4YYLYHL
  • Story Text: People in South Korea elected their first female president, Park Geun-hye on Thursday (December 20) heralding a change in leadership for Asia's third-largest economy.
    As South Korea's election closely follows leadership changes in China and Japan, Koreans and Japanese in Tokyo hoped the result would help to improve relations.

    "I am here in Japan because I like Japan but recently there have been problems with Takeshima, we call it Dokdo in South Korea, and I really would just prefer to hear good things during the time I am in Japan," said exchange student Kim Gun-Jae, also noting the the profile of females in Korean society in general has risen.
    South Korea has achieved astonishing success in rising from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War to become the world's 14th largest economy, but rewards have been thinly spread.
    Economic growth was 5.5 percent for decades, driven by some of the world's biggest companies, such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Hyundai Motor Co. That pace has slowed and this year the economy will expand by about two percent.
    The hundreds of thousands of graduates churned out by South Korean universities each year complain they have trouble finding decent jobs and income differentials have widened sharply.
    Park grew up in Seoul's presidential palace during the 18-year rule of her father, Park Chung-hee, who took power in a military coup in 1961.
    She has at times invoked her father's legacy of rapid growth that propelled South Korea into the league of industrialised nations.
    At other times, she has apologised for his suppression of protests and the execution of people suspected of sympathising with the North, which is still technically at war with the South after an armistice ended the Korean War.
    Twenty two-year-old Pak Han-Jin hoped that South Korea's first female president would come up with radical solutions which would make a better South Korea.

    "I want the education to improve and I want Korea to gain in national power as well," Pak said.
    But many Japanese, such as 45-year-old Masaharu Ishiki, remained cautious on whether diplomatic relations would improve, citing legacy issues on which both sides refuse to compromise.

    "There are many problems including Takeshima and the issue with the wartime comfort women. One side has to back down but both sides refuse to. That's why the relationship will remain the same or deteriorate," Ishiki said.
    Park will take office in February and signalled she would continue outgoing Lee Myung-bak's tough line on territorial and other disputes with Japan.
    The relationship between them, the two closest allies of the United States in the region, has been damaged by an island row and the issue of an apology and compensation from Japan for the forced sexual slavery of Korean women in World War Two.
    South Korea says Japan, which has similar disputes with China, has not come to terms with its harsh past rule of Korea.
    Japan says it has paid compensation for the slavery issue and has apologised.
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