In March, Mr. Yoon removed a roadblock in relations with Japan when he announced that South Korea would no longer demand ​Japanese compensation for victims of forced labor during World War II, but would create its own fund for them​. Mr. Yoon said that Japan should no longer be expected to “kneel because of our history 100 years ago.”The olive branch to Tokyo is part of Mr. Yoon’s broader efforts to reshape South Korean diplomacy, aligning his country closer to countries with “shared values,” especially the United States, on such things as supply chains and a “free and open” Indo-Pacific​. Mr. Yoon’s diplomatic concessions were a political boon for Mr. Kishida at home but costly for Mr. Yoon in his own country, where South Koreans accused him of “traitorous, humiliating diplomacy​.” His domestic critics say he gave too much and got too little in return from Japan, which they say has never properly apologized or atoned — a common complaint among many other Asian victims, especially in China and North Korea, of Japan’s World War II aggressions. To many South Koreans, what matters most in relations with Tokyo is how Japanese leaders view ​its ​colonial ​era, a time when ​Koreans were forced to adopt Japanese names; when schools removed Korean language and history from the curriculum​; ​and when tens of thousands of Korean women ​were forced ​into sexual slavery for Japan’s ​Imperial Army.​ They are likely to assess Mr. Kishida’s visit on whether — and how directly — he will apologize for that past.

---