South Korean President Leads Business Delegation to Japan

According to foreign media reports, on March 16th, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook visited Japan for a two-day state visit and held a summit meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the afternoon of the 16th. This is Moon Jae-in’s first visit to Japan since becoming president in May last year.

Accompanying the visit were Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo, and others. On the 17th, a business roundtable was held in Tokyo, attended by chairmen of major corporations from Japan and South Korea. An agreement was reached on establishing scholarships for Korean and Japanese students and promoting youth exchanges between the two countries. South Korea’s business community has high expectations for expanded economic exchanges and business opportunities with Japan.

This is an ice-breaking visit by a South Korean president to Japan in 12 years. The last mutual visit between Japan and South Korea was in October 2011, when then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda visited South Korea and then-South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited Japan. in December of the same year. Lee Myung-bak’s visit to Takeshima (called Dokdo in South Korea) in August 2012 provoked a strong reaction from Japan, and bilateral relations plummeted to a freezing point, after which there were no further mutual visits.