The drumming session from Tuesday, which Lee described as “a little clumsy”, has now spawned a viral video.<\/p>\n
During Lee’s visit to Nara, Takaichi’s hometown, he gifted the Japanese prime minister a drum set. The two leaders also exchanged signed drumsticks after their performance.<\/p>\n
“When we met at APEC last year, [Lee] said it was his dream to play the drums, so we prepared a surprise,” Takaichi later wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Footage of the jam session has won praise on social media.<\/p>\n
“Music seems to have the power to connect hearts at a deeper level than words ever could,” one X user wrote in Korean. “Exchanges like this may be quiet, but they will surely help move relations between Korea and Japan forward.”<\/p>\n
There have long been sore spots between the two neighbours, including historical grievances from Japan’s colonial rule and territorial disputes.<\/p>\n
But both countries are allies of the US, and have worked together to counter China’s increasing assertiveness in the region.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Takaichi said in a statement that cooperation between Japan, South Korea and the US has become increasingly important amid heightened tensions in the region’s “strategic environment”.<\/p>\n
Lee and Takaichi have also agreed to boost economic cooperation – a pledge that comes as China has been tightening its export of rare earths and dual-use goods to Japan.<\/p>\n
“Just seeing them actually playing drums together – not just posing – looks like they are having so much fun, and that’s what matters most,” an X user wrote in Japanese. <\/p>\n
“Both Korea and Japan are facing tough situations, but if we can meet each other halfway, I truly believe things will move in a positive direction.”<\/p>\n
Lee’s smoothness as a diplomat has boosted his approval ratings back home.<\/p>\n
Days before his viral jam session with Takaichi, he met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, with whom he took selfies on a Chinese smartphone.<\/p>\n
Last October, he flattered US President Donald Trump with a large golden crown. <\/p>\n
The only leader he hasn’t been able to charm is North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Pyongyang has rejected Lee’s overtures for peace and shown little interest in reconciliation. This week, Pyongyang demanded an apology from Seoul after accusing it of flying surveillance drones in its territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The drumming session from Tuesday, which Lee described as “a little clumsy”, has now spawned a viral video.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-369310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}