Ex-PM Suga to Head Japan Lawmaker Group on Ties with S. Korea

Tokyo, March 3 (Jiji Press)--Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is set to become the chief of a group of lawmakers aimed at promoting the country's ties with South Korea.

Executives of the Japan-Korea Parliamentarians' Union decided at a meeting Friday that Suga will succeed former Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as the head of the suprapartisan group.

"Japan and South Korea are extremely important neighbors in terms of the economy and national security," Suga, also an LDP member, told the meeting. "Although I can contribute only a little, I will work hard for the development of the two countries' friendship."

The appointment is slated to become official at a general meeting of the Japanese lawmaker group soon.

Nukaga said at Friday's meeting that Suga was picked as the next head of the group because he "has valuable experience of tackling, as chief cabinet secretary, a series of history issues between the two countries head on." Suga served in the post of top government spokesman between December 2012 and September 2020 under then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Suga served as prime minister for about a year until early October 2021.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]