U.S. lawmakers say trilateral alliance with Japan, S. Korea key

Visiting U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday called on Japan and South Korea to mend ties, saying the trilateral alliance involving the United States will become all the more important to deal with various challenges in Asia.

"As members of Congress, we are very concerned about strengthening the trilateral relationship," Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat from Colorado, told a press conference in Tokyo, adding it is one of the "difficult issues that Japan will need to work through."

DeGette, who co-chairs the U.S. Congressional Study Group on Japan, made the remarks during the press conference at which U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy called for more people-to-people exchanges, saying she is "keenly aware" of their importance to the U.S.-Japan alliance.

Japan's relations with China and South Korea remain frayed due to differences over perceptions of history and territorial disputes. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit in December to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors convicted wartime leaders along with the war dead, not just aggravated Japan's ties with its neighbors but also led the United States to express its disappointment.

"In terms of the security and economic situation, Japan and South Korea should not be arguing over anything," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Wisconsin who accompanied DeGette as part of a bipartisan delegation of the study group.

"I realize that there was a very, very tragic history that has occurred in the past. The time has come to put that in the past and anything that goes back to the bad memories prior to 1945," he said.

At the same press conference, Japan's farm minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, and former Senior Vice Defense Minister Akihisa Nagashima also said Tokyo and Washington need to increase exchanges between members of the U.S. Congress and the Diet to establish communication channels at various levels.