Shinzo Abe will attend the Winter Olympics next month despite a diplomatic dispute with hosts South Korea over Japan’s wartime use of sex slaves.
The Japanese prime minister said yesterday that he wanted to hold a summit with Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s president, and support a fellow Asian host ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Mr Abe’s decision suggests he will not break off relations over Seoul’s call for further recompense and apology to “comfort women” forced to work in military brothels during the second world war. Japan rejects those calls because the two countries signed a “final and irreversible” settlement of the issue in 2015.