Yoon will have a hard time making up with Japan all by himself

Neither South Korean leader nor Fumio Kishida has much political capital to invest

William Pesek

March 8, 2023 05:00 JST

Yoon Suk Yeol with his cabinet on Mar. 7: The South Korean president is offering Tokyo the chance to start over with something like a clean slate. © Yonhap/AP

William Pesek is an award-winning Tokyo-based journalist and author of "Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japan's Lost Decades."

The sudden detente emerging between South Korea and Japan is the best economic news North Asia has provided the globe in some years, as reflected in the market's enthusiastic reaction.