NARA — President Lee Jae Myung met with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Nara Prefecture on Tuesday afternoon for a bilateral summit, to be followed by an expanded session and a joint press conference. It was the third time the two leaders have met since Takaichi took office in October 2025, following a bilateral discussion on the sidelines of last year’s APEC summit in Gyeongju and a brief exchange at the G20 summit in South Africa. Nara holds particular significance as the Japanese rime minister’s hometown and political constituency. Lee proposed meeting there during Takaichi’s visit to Gyeongju for the APEC summit last October. It is considered rare for a Japanese prime minister to invite a foreign head of state to their own electoral district and this meeting represents the first-ever summit between a Japanese prime minister and a foreign leader held in Nara. As Japan’s oldest former capital, Nara is also regarded as a symbolic site of historical exchange between Korea and Japan, reflecting cultural and diplomatic ties that date back more than 1,500 years. On Wednes