Korea-Japan Business Leaders Gather After 1.5 Years... Collaborate to Foster Startups Together

Japan Tokyo Keidanren Hall Hosts Korea-Japan Business Meeting
Attended by Chairmen Ryu Jin, Lee Woong-yeol, Shin Dong-bin, Cho Won-tae, Cho Hyun-joon
Agreement Reached on Establishing Korea-US-Japan Cooperation Body and Promoting Korea's CPTPP Membership

The business communities of Korea and Japan have agreed to jointly nurture startups in both countries and to establish a trilateral economic cooperation body in line with the economic cooperation of the governments of Korea, the U.S., and Japan. Additionally, Korea's comprehensive and progressive accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will be promoted with Japan's cooperation.

Ryu Jin, Chairman of the Korea Economic Association Photo by Yonhap News

The Korea Economic Organization Association and Japan's Keidanren held the 30th Korea-Japan Business Meeting on the 11th at the Keidanren Hall in Tokyo, Japan, and announced a joint statement containing these details.

First, the Korea Economic Organization Association and Keidanren agreed on the need to expand the nurturing and cooperation of Korea-Japan startups and agreed to hold the "Korea-Japan Startup Cooperation Forum" in Tokyo, Japan, in the first half of this year. At the forum, business presentations by promising Korean startups wishing to enter the Japanese market and business consultations for cooperation with Japanese large corporations will be held. In connection with the next business meeting to be held in Korea in the second half of this year, a venue will also be prepared for large corporations and startups from both Korea and Japan to discuss business cooperation together.

Furthermore, the two organizations agreed to consider holding a "Korea-U.S.-Japan Business Summit," where the business communities of Korea, the U.S., and Japan will explore mutual cooperation measures to respond swiftly to unstable international situations. They also agreed to work toward Korea's accession to the CPTPP, and this was explicitly stated in the joint statement.

Kim Bong-man, Director of the International Headquarters of the Korea Economic Organization Association, said, "This is the first time since the launch of the meeting that the joint statement includes the content that the economic communities of Korea and Japan will cooperate to promote Korea's accession to the CPTPP," interpreting it as "a result of the improvement in Korea-Japan relations that has continued since last year."

At the meeting, 15 Korean businesspeople, including Ryu Jin, Chairman of the Korea Economic Organization Association, Lee Woong-yeol, Honorary Chairman of Kolon Group, Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group, Cho Won-tae, Chairman of Hanjin Group, and Cho Hyun-joon, Chairman of Hyosung Group, attended and exchanged opinions with 14 Japanese businesspeople, including Masakazu Tokura, Chairman of Keidanren.

In his opening remarks, Chairman Ryu emphasized, "Amid fierce global technological hegemony competition, the two countries can enhance their competitiveness in the global market through cooperation in advanced technology fields."

The Korea-Japan Business Meeting resumed after a year and a half since it was last held in Seoul in July 2022. Notably, this meeting was the first to be held after Japan re-designated Korea as a "white list (preferred export screening country)" in June last year and after the Korea-Japan export regulations, which had lasted for four years since 2019, were completely resolved, drawing even more attention from the business community.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.