A three way partnership arrange in 2019 by two prime Japanese and South Korean corporations was hailed as a beacon of cooperation amid strained diplomatic relations.
Executives from South Korea’s Naver and Japan’s SoftBank Group mentioned they might collectively personal the operator of Line, a South Korean-developed messaging app popularized in Japan. They gave the venture a code title that emphasised cooperation: Gaia.
5 years later, Japan and South Korea have made important strides in easing longstanding historic tensions. However a rift has emerged over the possession of the Naver-SoftBank enterprise, and diplomats and worldwide relations consultants concern it may once more put stress on ties between the nations.
Japan and South Korea, each key United States allies in Asia, have a delicate historical past. Japan colonized Korea from 1910 till Japan’s give up in World Struggle II in 1945, and Japan and South Korea have usually scuffled over territory and geopolitical variations.
“As we’ve seen many instances up to now, relations between Japan and Korea shift, and smaller factors of pressure — whether or not they be wartime or trendy — can rapidly escalate to influence protection and diplomacy extra broadly,” mentioned Maiko Takeuchi, regional managing director at CCSI, a gaggle in New York that advises governments on worldwide safety points.
The stakes are elevated given issues about North Korean nuclear proliferation and heightened instability within the area, Ms. Takeuchi mentioned. “There’s a sturdy view from the U.S. and elsewhere that preserving Japan and Korea’s good relations is extra vital than ever,” she mentioned.
The messaging platform on the heart of the dispute, Line, was launched in Japan in 2011 by Naver, the operator of South Korea’s main search engine. After the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that 12 months, when cellphone strains in Japan had been disrupted, Line enabled customers to speak through an web connection.
Since then, Line, recognized for its in-screen stickers that includes expressive rabbits and bears, has develop into Japan’s hottest messaging app — amassing lots of of tens of millions of customers and increasing into Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia.
In 2019, the SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son and Hae-Jin Lee, a co-founder of Naver, agreed to create a 50-50 three way partnership that may not directly function Line. Reviews referred to the deal because the “Son-Lee alliance,” when Japanese-South Korean relations had been at a historic low.
The earlier 12 months, South Korea’s Supreme Court docket had ordered a number of Japanese corporations to compensate South Koreans compelled to work of their factories throughout World Struggle II. Japan reacted to the judicial order in 2019 by imposing export restrictions on chemical substances important to South Korea’s semiconductor business.
The nations’ prime leaders weren’t talking, and there was speak of severing intelligence-sharing agreements. This was a giant downside for the US, which had been attempting to get Japan and South Korea to work collectively to counter challenges from China and North Korea.
However relations between South Korea and Japan then improved enormously. In March 2023, President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea introduced a plan to compensate former compelled laborers utilizing cash from a government-led fund. Later that month, Mr. Yoon met one on one with Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida — the primary such assembly in 12 years — and Japan lifted its restrictions on semiconductor materials exports.
However late final 12 months, cracks began opening within the Naver-Softbank enterprise.
Line’s operator, an organization referred to as LY Company, mentioned in November {that a} third occasion had gained unauthorized entry to its programs through Naver’s cloud storage system. In flip, Japan’s communications ministry issued an ambiguous assertion that was extensively interpreted as a directive to Naver to promote down its stake in its three way partnership.
In South Korea, the transfer brought about a stir. Some analysts and politicians interpreted it as an try by Japan to make use of political strain to undermine Naver, one among South Korea’s largest corporations. Naver’s union mentioned it opposed any sale, and the corporate’s chief govt, Choi Soo-Yeon, mentioned she discovered the Japanese authorities’s directive “extremely uncommon.”
An editorial final month within the Korea Financial Day by day equated the transfer to state interference. “For the Japanese authorities to now demand Naver’s exit, after all of the laborious work and funding, appears at odds with the rules of a civilized nation,” the article acknowledged.
In South Korea, opposition events have criticized Mr. Yoon for taking what they view as overly conciliatory positions towards Japan, and cite Naver as the newest sufferer of these insurance policies. Cho Kuk, a key ally of South Korea’s former president, has referred to as Mr. Yoon’s method to Japan “humiliating,” accusing the president of failing to help a profitable home agency.
In a briefing in Might, Mr. Yoon’s coverage chief of workers, Sung Tae-yoon, mentioned that so long as Line’s operator was capable of lay out passable plans to strengthen safety, the Japanese authorities shouldn’t transfer ahead with “hostile measures” that may power a Naver stake sale. South Korea’s authorities will “proceed to make sure that Korean corporations are usually not subjected to any discriminatory measures or unfair therapy abroad,” he mentioned.
SoftBank and Naver are discussing potential revisions to the possession construction of Line’s operator, based on the businesses.
Naver executives have largely remained quiet on the subject. A spokeswoman for Naver mentioned the corporate was open to all potentialities. A spokesman for Japan’s communications ministry mentioned it was as much as Line’s operator to determine easy methods to enhance its safety governance.
Leaders on each the Japanese and South Korean sides seem decided to stop the quarrel over Line from escalating. Mr. Kishida and Mr. Yoon agreed in late Might that the dispute shouldn’t get in the way in which of diplomatic relations.
Up to now, even seemingly minor incidents have confirmed able to turning into extended diplomatic conflicts. In 2018, when a South Korean naval ship was accused of aiming its fire-control radar at a Japanese plane flying over the Sea of Japan, the nations responded by halting defense-related exchanges. That impasse eased solely this month.
How Japan finally handles the problem of Line’s possession could have an effect on the broader trajectory of Japanese-Korean relations, mentioned Yul Sohn, president of the East Asia Institute, a suppose tank in Seoul.
“From the Korean aspect, most of the people believes that the Yoon authorities has proven its intentions and the cup remains to be half empty and ready for Japan to reply,” he mentioned.
If Japan reveals it’s keen to reciprocate, even via a gesture like a concession associated to the dispute over Line, Mr. Yoon may use that to maneuver additional cooperation, Mr. Sohn mentioned.
“We’re in a section of recovering relations, however each events are extremely conscious of what has occurred up to now,” he mentioned. “Even with a stronger basis constructed, there are nonetheless cracks that must be reckoned with.”
John Yoon contributed reporting from Seoul.
