Editorial: S. Korean-Japan diplomatic tensions shouldn't hamper civic exchange

The deteriorating diplomatic relationship between Japan and South Korea has begun to have an impact on grassroots exchanges between the two countries.

The South Korean city of Busan announced that it would suspend administrative exchanges with Japan. Busan is located in the very south of the Korean Peninsula and has historically had very active exchanges with Japan. But it has said it will halt citizens' visits to Nagasaki Prefecture, with which it has had friendly relations, and other interactive programs until bilateral ties improve.

Furthermore, the city of Seosan in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea, notified its sister city in Japan -- Tenri, Nara Prefecture -- that it would temporarily stop its exchange programs. A soccer team and a choral group from the South Korean city of Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, lodged a request to postpone their respective visits to the Gifu Prefecture city of Ogaki, both of which are part of youth exchange programs between the two countries.

According to the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR), 162 local governments in Japan and South Korea are in sister-city or friendship-city relationships. The number of sister cities and friendship cities that Japan has with South Korea is the third most it has with any country after the United States and China, and yet, exchange programs have been subjected to suspension one after another.

South Korea, which has decided to halt these exchange programs, sees Japan's beefed-up restrictions on exports as problematic. The city of Busan argued that it was keeping in step with the administration of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is demanding the retraction of the restrictive trade measures.

However, the point of sister cities is to further mutual understanding at the civic level regardless of what is happening at the government level. It is precisely at a time when tensions are high between the governments of the two countries that bilateral exchange at the grassroots level becomes important. The cancellation of exchange programs, therefore, comes as a great disappointment.

President Moon is enthusiastically advocating that the South Korean public come together as a whole against the export restriction issue. This attitude is indirectly nudging the suspension of civic exchange programs.

"Exchanges between local governments comprise the pillars of civic exchange, so we would like them to continue carrying them out responsibly," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono has emphasized. But Japan appears to be doing little but silently observe the situation. It's merely sending a cool gaze at South Korea's handling of the situation against a backdrop of unforgiving public opinion.

As early as Aug. 2, the Cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to approve a government ordinance revision that would remove South Korea from its "white list" of countries that enjoy an expedited export process. As Seoul has requested that the step not be taken, if Abe's Cabinet does indeed approve the move, South Korea's anti-Japanese sentiment is bound to grow even further.

Aug. 15, or National Liberation Day of Korea, on which the liberation of the Korean Peninsula from Japanese colonial rule is celebrated, is coming up. It is a time when nationalism on both the Japanese and South Korean sides can easily flare up.

When Japan and South Korea normalized diplomatic relations in 1965, the number of people going back and forth between the two countries was around 10,000. Last year, the number reached 10 million. Multilayered ties among everyday people from the two countries continue to expand. We must not allow this progress to reverse itself.