James D.J. Brown is professor of political science at Temple University, Japan Campus.
On June 3, Lee Jae Myung of South Korea’s left-leaning Democratic Party was elected president in a landslide. Many in Tokyo viewed this with trepidation since Lee has previously shown hostility toward Japan. In 2016, while mayor of the city of Seongnam, Lee described Japan as an “enemy state.” Lee was also critical of his predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol’s enthusiastic cooperation with Japan, lambasting it as “humiliation and subservience.”
