Japan-South Korea summit to discuss economy and regional challenges

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Tuesday for a summit in western Japan as the two leaders aim to improve the sometimes-strained relationship as Tokyo faces a deepening row with China.

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The meeting could deliver a political win as Takaichi is seeking to shore up her power. A few months after taking office, she enjoys strong approval ratings but her party has a majority in only one of two houses of parliament. There's growing speculation that she may be planning a snap election in hopes of gaining more seats.

Takaichi is hosting Lee in her hometown, Nara, an ancient capital known for its deer and centuries-old Buddhist temples.

On Wednesday, she will take Lee on a tour of Horyu Temple, which includes buildings from the late 7th or early 8th century. They're some of the world's oldest surviving wooden architecture and illustrate Japan's adoption of Buddhism via the Korean Peninsula. Lee will also meet with South Korean residents in Japan before returning home in the afternoon. Japan's cultural, religious and political ties to the Korean Peninsula are ancient, but in modern times their relationship has been repeatedly disrupted by disputes stemming from Japan's brutal colonial rule of Korea from 1910-1945.