The Yomiuri ShimbunSouth Korean mass media reports on Japan have had undeniably grave ramifications on bilateral relations. For example, take Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Matsushima Air Base in Higashi-Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, on May 12. Abe’s visit was intended to offer words of encouragement to Air Self-Defense Force personnel at the base, which had been damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuing tsunami in 2011. During the visit, Abe was photographed aboard a practice plane of the Blue Impulse, the ASDF’s aerobatic demonstration team. Two days later, however, The Munhwa Ilbo, a South Korean evening paper, criticized Abe in an article with the headline, “Is he...
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