An elderly Japanese man has sent a letter to a South Korean consulate, stating his country’s recent actions claiming Dokdo as Japanese territory is wrong.

The South Korean consulate in Sendai announced that 77-year-old Japanese citizen Seino Takuya, said in the letter that it would be in Japan’s national interests to not claim Dokdo as its territory, but rather build a friendly relationship and everlasting trust with South Korea.

Seino also said Japan’s decision to claim Dokdo as its own when it forced Korea into annexation and insisting the San Francisco Treaty signed in 1951 serves as evidence of its sovereign ownership of Dokdo when Korea could not even attend the signing event are wrong.

Seino said he had sent the letter to be delivered to South Korean media after Japanese media declined to publish it.