July 17, 2024

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Shii Kazuo on July 16 attended a farewell reception held at a Tokyo hotel for outgoing South Korean Ambassador to Japan Yun Dukmin.

This event was hosted by the Japan-South Korea Parliamentarians’ Union.

The ambassador in his farewell speech said that he is very glad that friendship between South Korea and Japan has developed further during his term of office between 2022 and 2024.

JCP Shii, along with other political party representatives, gave speeches of appreciation.

Shii in his speech recalled that he exchanged views with the ambassador on several occasions regarding ways to create a genuine peace in East Asia, and said that he proposed to utilize and strengthen the framework of the East Asia Summit (EAS), whose participating countries include Japan, South Korea, China, and the U.S., in cooperation with ASEAN, and turn East Asia into a peaceful region without fear of war.

Shii welcomed the joint declaration of the Japan-China-South Korea summit which took place in Seoul in May as the document incorporated items that help develop the existing mechanisms of the EAS, the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific, and the ASEAN Regional Forum. He said that he earnestly hopes that relations between Japan and South Korea will be further improved in order to build a framework for regional peace cooperation in an inclusive manner.

Together with Shii, JCP Secretariat Head Koike Akira, JCP Diet Policy Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji, JCP member of the House of Representatives Kasai Akira, and JCP member of the House of Councilors Inoue Satoshi participated in the event and had conversations with the ambassador.