Leading Korean businesspeople will meet with their Japanese and Chinese counterparts this week in a series of high-profile meetings. They are expected to discuss a wide range of economic cooperation measures including stabilizing global supply chains in the face of a rapidly changing international order.
The 56th Korea-Japan Business Leaders’ Meeting hosted by the Korea-Japan Economic Association and the Japan-Korea Economic Association will be held at Okura Hotel in Tokyo, Japan, for three days from May 14 with the theme of “Korea-Japan Partnership Leading to the Future,” according to sources in the Korean business world on May 13.
Kim Yoon, chairman of Samyang Holdings, and Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon, who lead the Korea-Japan Economic Association, met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for about 30 minutes. They also met with senior Japanese officials, including Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Ken Saito and Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa. During the meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister, the delegation reportedly had a wide-ranging discussion on economic cooperation between Korea and Japan in various fields, thanks to an improvement in bilateral relations under Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol administration.
Prior to the meeting with Kishida, the delegation also met with former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, president of the Japan-Korea Lawmakers Federation, and Ryota Takeda, who served as secretary general for the federation. With the “Line Yahoo stake adjustment” case, which was triggered by the Japanese government’s administrative guidance and may become a hot diplomatic issue between Japan and Korea, the delegation may have conveyed the concerns of the Korean business community through pro-Korean Japanese government officials and politicians.
According to Cho Seung-rae, a lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Korea who recently visited Japan and met with former Prime Minister Suga and Japanese House of Representatives Speaker Fukushiro Nukaga, the Japanese side said that there was a misunderstanding between Korea and Japan about Cho’s opinion that technical issues such as personal information leaks should not be treated as a capital issue. “We have the principle that private-sector matters should be addressed by the private sector, and we are approaching the Like equity issue based on this principle,” they told Cho.
Through the Korea-Japan Business Leaders’ Meeting, the Korean and Japanese business communities seek ways to cooperate in industries such as semiconductors, displays, hydrogen, and advanced robots. The business community is also promoting a joint declaration of a partnership between Korea and Japan.
Later this month, the heads of major Korean companies will attend the “Korea-Japan-China Business Summit,” a gathering of business leaders from the three countries. CEOs of major companies from Japan and China are also expected to join the event. It will be the first time in five years since 2019 that business leaders from the three countries gather together. The Korea-Japan-China Business Summit will be held in nine years since the trilateral business summit was held in Seoul in 2015. The event was first held in 2009 with the aim of expanding economic cooperation and exchanges in Northeast Asia, but was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Co-organized by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Japan’s Keidanren, and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), the Korea-Japan-China Business Summit is expected to be attended by a number of top 10 Korean business group leaders, including Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong, SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Eui-sun, and LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo.