As tensions in the Middle East rose amid hostilities involving the United States, Israel and Iran, a Japanese government-chartered evacuation flight also carried South Korean evacuees, Japanese media reported.
On the 11th, the Mainichi Shimbun reported the charter departed Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the early morning and arrived at Tokyo's Narita Airport that afternoon. The flight carried 160 Japanese citizens and 12 people from South Korea — evacuees and their family members who had requested transport.
Mainichi said this was the first time since the current Middle East war that a Japan-operated charter included foreign nationals from a cooperating partner country.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry confirmed the report, saying 11 South Korean nationals and one foreign spouse boarded the Japanese charter that left Riyadh the previous afternoon and arrived in Tokyo at about 1:38 p.m. on the 11th.
Officials said the evacuation was carried out through close coordination among South Korea's Foreign Ministry, Japan's Foreign Ministry and the two countries' diplomatic missions under their bilateral Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation to Protect Nationals in Third Countries.
The two governments signed that memorandum in September 2024 to coordinate evacuations of their citizens during wars or major crises.
Japan has similar agreements with Australia and Canada. Tokyo said it could offer any remaining seats on the charter to citizens of other countries, but no other government requested additional capacity.
The countries have cooperated in crises before. In October 2023, during the Gaza conflict, Japanese residents in Israel and their families returned on the same military transport that evacuated South Korean nationals.
