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TOKYO — <\/span>Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi<\/a> will host South Korean President Lee Jae Myung<\/a> in her hometown on Tuesday, in a summit meant to stabilize ties between the two sometime-rivals as Japan’s worries about Chinese power in Asia grows. <\/p>\n The meeting is part of a swirl of diplomatic activity in a region with growing tensions. A week ago Lee visited China<\/a>, where leader Xi Jinping sought to cozy up to Seoul amid tensions between Japan and China<\/a> after Takaichi said in November that potential Chinese military action against Taiwan, the island democracy Beijing claims as its own, could justify Japanese intervention.<\/p>\n Lee\u2019s visit also follows the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by the United States, a mutual ally of Japan and South Korea.<\/p>\n Takaichi and Lee will meet in her hometown of Nara<\/a>, Japan’s scenic ancient capital.<\/p>\n The talks will be their first full summit and third meeting in less than three months since Takaichi took office, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials said.<\/p>\n At their talks on the sidelines of the APEC<\/a> summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, in October, Lee reportedly asked Takaichi to meet in Nara.<\/p>\n Their meeting will focus on trade and the challenges of China and North Korea. <\/p>\n Japan and South Korea must also figure out how to deal with Trump\u2019s unpredictable diplomacy, and both countries are under U.S. pressure to increase their defense spending<\/a>.<\/p>\n During Lee\u2019s meetings in China, Xi called on the two countries to join hands, noting their historical rivalry against Japan in World War II. Lee is expected to maintain a neutral position between Japan and China.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the current strategic environment, strengthening Japan-South Korea relations and reinforcing the Japan-U.S.-South Korea cooperation is more important than ever,\u201d Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters on Friday. \u201cThe Japanese and South Korean governments are on the same page about closely communicating to develop our relations stably and in a forward-looking manner.\u201d<\/p>\n Takaichi and Lee on Wednesday will visit Horyu Temple, which includes architecture from the late 7th or early 8th century, making them some of the world\u2019s oldest surviving wooden buildings and illustrating Japanese adaptation of Buddhism via the Korean Peninsula. Lee will also meet with South Korean residents in Japan before returning home in the afternoon.<\/p>\n Japan’s cultural, religious and political ties to the Korean Peninsula are ancient, but their modern history has been repeatedly disrupted by disputes stemming from the brutal Japanese colonial rule of Korea in 1910-1945.<\/p>\n Under a 1965 normalization treaty, Japan provided $500 million in economic assistance to South Korea, saying all wartime compensation issues were settled. But historical issues<\/a> including forced labor and sexual slavery during the war have disrupted ties for decades as Tokyo promoted revisionist views.<\/p>\n Relations have begun improving<\/a> in recent years under a mutual sense of threat from China\u2019s growing assertiveness.<\/p>\n Takaichi\u2019s reputation as a security hawk and an assumption by some that Lee would tilt toward North Korea and China led to early worries over their ties. But both leaders have so far sought to improve their relationship.<\/p>\n Takaichi was a regular visitor at Tokyo\u2019s Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan\u2019s 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals \u2014 an action seen by the Koreas and China as a lack of remorse about Japan\u2019s wartime past. But she sent a religious ornament instead of praying at Yasukuni<\/a> for the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan\u2019s defeat and the shrine\u2019s autumn festival.<\/p>\n While the two leaders are expected to stay away from the historical disputes, media reports say they may discuss possible humanitarian cooperation in the ongoing effort to recover the remains at a former undersea mining site<\/a> in western Japan where 180 workers, including 136 Korean forced laborers, were killed in a 1942 accident.<\/p>\n Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said the two governments have been discussing a possible DNA analysis of some of the remains found at the site last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n