Japan’s incoming leader Shinzo Abe needs to rebuild trust with its neighboring countries, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Tuesday, noting that keeping cooperative ties between South Korea and Japan are in both nations’ interests.

“Japan is in a position where it can jointly work with us for this region and the international community,” foreign ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young told reporters, commenting on Abe’s victory in Japan’s parliamentary election.

“To implement this role, I think that the most important thing is to build trust between both nations and their people,” Cho said.

“Taking this point into consideration, I hope Japan’s new government implements this role through winning the trust of its neighboring countries and the international community,” the spokesman said.

Cho said that South Korea is willing to work with Japan’s new government on a range of issues, including North Korea, but will maintain a firm stance over history-related issues.

Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party is set to return to power after securing a lopsided victory on Sunday and many analysts have warned that bilateral relations with South Korea could worsen if he becomes Japan’s next prime minister.

Relations between South Korea and Japan have been strained since President Lee Myung-bak made a visit to South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo in August, a first by a South Korean president, and Japan strongly protested the move and renewed its claim to the East Sea islets.

Separately, Japan has been locked in a bitter dispute with China over a set of islets in the East China Sea. (Yonhap News)