At a press conference held on May 10, Minister of Defense Takeshi Iwaya expressed his willingness to hold a Japan-ROK ministerial meeting. The governments of Japan and South Korea are making arrangements to hold a defense ministerial meeting in early June. “In order to prevent the escalation of various tensions between the two countries, it wouldn’t make sense not to hold a meeting,” he said. The meeting of the defense ministers of Japan and South Korea is scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the Asian Security Summit, which will be held in Singapore.