By Hyonhee Shin and Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in South Korea on Friday for a whirlwind visit, seeking to cement a new partnership between the two neighbors that will be tested by looming leadership changes in Tokyo and Washington.

Prodded by U.S. President Joe Biden, Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol have orchestrated a turnaround in relations that had fallen to their lowest point in decades amid acrimonious diplomatic and trade disputes over Japan’s occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945.

“I would like to review the Japan-ROK relations, which have improved significantly, between myself and President Yoon Suk Yeol, and discuss the direction to be taken to sustainably strengthen cooperation,” Kishida said before leaving Tokyo.

Kishida announced he would step down in September and that Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party would hold elections on September 27 to choose his successor.

Yoon and Kishida will meet at the summit on Friday afternoon. Kishida is expected to return to Tokyo on Saturday.

During his farewell visit, Kishida will seek to advance ties, expanding the relationship to partners working closely together on the international stage, a Japanese foreign ministry official said at a briefing.

Their meeting will also be closely watched for the outcome of ongoing discussions between the two countries on the evacuation of each other’s citizens in the event of an emergency in a third country and on the acceleration of border controls for travelers.

Yoon has made restoring relations with Japan and improving security cooperation a diplomatic priority to address military threats from North Korea.

At a summit with Biden at Camp David last year, the three leaders pledged to deepen military and economic cooperation, agreeing to initiatives explicitly designed to foster a long-term partnership, a senior U.S. official said.

The United States is confident that Kishida’s successor will be equally committed to continuing the renewed alliance and that “all of these projects that we’ve worked on together are going to continue apace under new leadership,” said Mira Rapp-Hooper, a senior White House National Security Council official.

“Prime Minister Kishida and President Yoon have both taken great personal and political risks to advance the warming of their bilateral relations in ways that previous governments simply have not been able to accomplish,” she said.

Despite the public expression of an enduring partnership between the three capitals, the question remains whether the Asian neighbours can sustain the kind of genuine rapprochement that would put their historical woes behind them with the arrival of new leaders.

“Although a country’s foreign policy is dictated by its national interests and values, changes in government bring changes at least in the tones and approaches of foreign policy,” said Kim Hyoung-zhin, a former South Korean vice foreign minister who recently studied in Japan.

A small group of protesters gathered outside Yoon’s office before Kishida’s arrival, saying Japan had yet to atone for its wartime past. One protest leader condemned Yoon for wasting government money on a “so-called farewell trip for the outgoing prime minister.”

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin, Josh Smith in Seoul, Tim Kelly, John Geddie in Tokyo, David Brunnstrom in Washington, writing by Jack Kim; editing by Ed Davies and Stephen Coates)