Will Taro Aso's past overshadow Japan and South Korea's bid to settle wartime history?

Former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso was due to hold talks in Seoul on Wednesday with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol over the issue of Koreans forced into labour for Japanese companies during Tokyo's colonial occupation of the peninsula.

The controversial issue has dogged bilateral relations for generations but became more acute under Yoon's immediate predecessor, Moon Jae-in. Seoul is seeking to get ties back on track and Aso's visit is being seen as a clear sign that Tokyo also wishes to put the matter behind the two nations.

Aso's appointment for the discussions has raised eyebrows in some quarters, however, given that his family's wealth was in part built with the use of Korean forced labourers and Allied prisoners of war in its Japanese mines.

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Others have pointed out that Aso has a reputation for making inappropriate comments that have infuriated segments of domestic and foreign society, and there are fears another unguided aside could set back efforts to build bridges.

Sources told Kyodo News that Aso will hold two days of talks over the forced labour issue with Yoon in Seoul. He is also expected to express his condolences for the people who died during Halloween celebrations in the Itaewon district of the city this past weekend.

Japan has long held the position that the issue of compensation for former labourers at Japanese corporations during the 1910-1945 colonial period was settled under the 1965 agreement that normalised diplomatic relations and saw Tokyo pay redress. A series of court rulings in Korea in recent years, including at the Supreme Court level, have disagreed with that position and ordered a number of Japanese firms to compensate former labourers.

Under Tokyo's instructions, those firms resisted making payments and, as a result, courts ordered the seizure of their assets in South Korea. A final decision on liquidating those holdings to provide compensation to the former labourers is believed to be imminent and both sides are keen for an agreement to be reached before that point.

"Both sides now agree they want to solve this problem and the visit by Aso is significant as he is the former prime minister, a former foreign and finance minister and even today he is vice-president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party," said Yuji Hosaka, a professor specialising in Japan-Korea relations at Sejong University in South Korea.

There have been suggestions in recent weeks that the solution may take the form of a fund that companies will be invited to pay into, with the proceeds being distributed among the victims, Hosaka told This Week in Asia, although he pointed out that there has so far been no mention of Japanese companies contributing to the fund in Japan.

Stephen Nagy, an associate professor of international relations at Tokyo's International Christian University, agreed that Aso's "gravitas" within the Japanese government underlines Japan's desire to reach a lasting solution to the problem and the former prime minister will be able to unequivocally state Tokyo's position.

"There is now good potential for some kind of behind-closed-doors solution that can be used by both sides to provide a cover for a compromise agreement," he said.

Criticism from some quarters is "inevitable", Nagy said, but added: "If both sides can come away with something that is a compromise, then both will be able to say that the biggest achievement is that they are moving forward."

Hosaka points out, however, that while most Koreans know little about Aso, the South Korean media can be certain to comment on his own family's links to forced labourers.

Aso only finally admitted in 2009 that his family business had used forced labourers and POWs during World War II. The issue had come up two years earlier, when Tokyo applied to have a number of locations linked to its industrial heritage added to the Unesco list of World Heritage sites, although the application to the UN body made no mention of the use of forced labourers.

It was also learned that Aso Mining Co had used at least 300 POWs in its mines, and as many as 10,000 Korean forced labourers. Aso initially denied his family's involvement until presented with documentation, whereupon he claimed he could not be held accountable as he was a child during the war.

Aso was himself chairman of Aso Mining from 1973 to 1979, when he went into politics.

Hosaka is hopeful that Aso may make another apology which, coming from a former prime minister and a senior member of a family that employed foreign labourers, might carry additional weight in Seoul.

Comments on social media are less optimistic, with many suggesting Aso might have been sent to Seoul with instructions to dig his heels in and insist South Korea bend to Japan's position on the matter, although others were more concerned with his well-documented ability to say the wrong thing.

Aso has in the past caused outrage by blaming the nation's woes on unmarried people because "they don't give birth" and described Japan as the perfect place for "rich Jews" to live.

He has similarly called on elderly people to "hurry up and die" because they are a drain on the nation's resources and, after China complained about plans to release water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, insisted the water is safe for humans to drink.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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