Japanese and S.Korean leaders jam to K-pop at summit
The leaders of Japan and South Korea agreed to deepen cooperation between their countries before unleashing their own surprise cultural exchanges in a surprise jam session filled with K-pop hits.
The musical performance between Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung followed a summit held on Tuesday in Japan’s ancient capital Nara, which is also Takaichi’s hometown.
Wearing personalized athletic jackets, they sat side by side and drummed to hit songs like BTS’ Dynamite and Kpop Demon Hunters’ Golden in a short video released by Takaichi’s office on Wednesday.
The jam session was a surprise for Takaichi, who was a heavy metal fan and avid drummer during his college days.
“Playing drums has been a dream of mine for a long time,” Lee said in X, and thanked Takaichi’s hospitality for arranging the jam session.
“As we respect our differences and harmonize our rhythms, I hope that Korea and Japan will deepen cooperation and get closer to each other step by step,” Lee said.
Takaichi praised Lee in a video as a fast learner, saying that he learned to play the drums in just a few minutes.
“In order to develop Japan-South Korea relations in a forward-looking and stable manner, we will continue our close communication between the two governments, including proactively conducting ‘shuttle diplomacy’,” Takaichi said in his message to X. he said.
