By Jun Ji-hye
A football match between lawmakers from Korea and Japan, scheduled for March, is expected to be dropped due to Seoul’s growing resentment about Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s recent words and actions that deny the past misdeeds of his country.
“Members of the lawmakers’ football association told each other that it will be difficult to hold the match as planned due to the strained relations between the two countries,” said an aide to Rep. Choung Byoung-gug of the ruling Saenuri Party, Thursday.
During his visit to the neighboring country in December, Rep. Choung, president of the association, met his Japanese counterpart Seishiro Eto and agreed to resume the friendly, which has been suspended since 2007.
They were supposed to hold the match around March 29.
“At the time, they hoped that the event would be an opportunity to thaw the icy relations between the two sides,” said the aide.
However, the chances got slimmer after Abe of the Liberal Democratic Party that same month visited the Yasukuni Shrine where war criminals are enshrined.
Controversial remarks from some conservative figures about the country’s sex slavery during World War II also fueled anger in Seoul. NHK President Katsuto Momii recently said that the practice of enslaving young females as ‘comfort women’ for troops is common in any country that at war, including France and Germany.
Tokyo’s continuous sovereignty claims on Dokdo, which is under Korea’s control in theory and in fact, and its decision to have its Dokdo claim included in history textbooks further froze Seoul-Tokyo relations.
Some lawmakers have expressed concerns about the potential public criticism they will endure ahead of the June 4 local polls if they attend the match as planned.
The friendly matches, which first began in 1998 under late liberal President Kim Dae-jung regime, have had a rough time due to the precarious relationship between the two countries.
In 2005, Korean lawmakers refused to participate in protest against then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visit to the shrine.
In 2006, Seoul and Tokyo lawmakers resumed the matches. However, the event was canceled due to the North Korea’s bombing of Yeonpyeong Island in the South and a severe earthquake in Japan, in 2010 and 2011, respectively.
The two countries have held the match seven times so far.