Yoon Policy Coordination Group Meets Japanese Business Community, Urges "Prompt Lift of Export Restrictions"

Jin Jeong-seok "Kishida Responds Positively to Restoring Visa Waiver and Normalizing Exchanges"
Met with Former Prime Minister Mori, Coalition Ruling Party Leader, and National Security Director

Jeong Jin-seok, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and head of the Korea-Japan Policy Consultation Delegation (hereinafter referred to as the Policy Consultation Delegation) dispatched by President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol to Japan, speaks at a luncheon meeting with Japanese business leaders held at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo on the 26th. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The Korea-Japan Policy Consultation Delegation dispatched by President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol met with Japanese business leaders on the 26th and urged the prompt lifting of Japan's export restrictions against South Korea.

Jung Jin-seok, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and head of the delegation, emphasized at a luncheon meeting with Japanese business circles, "As Japan's export restrictions have prolonged, the momentum of cooperation between the two countries has declined, and both peoples have suffered significant losses," adding, "A prompt decision to lift the export restrictions is necessary." Jung stated, "The export restrictions have negatively impacted both countries by damaging the highly efficient economic division of labor structure formed through long-standing mutual complementarity and competition between Korean and Japanese private companies, causing uncertainty," and requested, "We ask for the efforts of the (Japanese) business community to promptly lift the export restrictions."

The export restrictions imposed by the Japanese government in July 2019 are widely regarded as a de facto retaliatory measure against the South Korean Supreme Court's October 2018 ruling ordering compensation for forced laborers during the Japanese colonial period. Furthermore, Jung mentioned strengthening Korea-Japan economic cooperation and said, "It is necessary to first restore the human exchanges between the two countries, which have been contracted due to COVID-19," adding, "To normalize exchanges between businesspeople of both countries, today I conveyed opinions to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida regarding the prompt restoration of institutional foundations such as resuming the Gimpo-Haneda flight route, applying quarantine exemptions, and restoring visa exemptions, and received a positive response from the Prime Minister."

The meeting with business circles was held at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and attended by representatives of Japanese business organizations, including Masakazu Tokura, Chairman of Keidanren. In the afternoon, the delegation successively met with former Prime Minister Yoshir? Mori, Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of the ruling coalition party Komeito, and Takeo Akiba, Director of the National Security Secretariat (NSS), the top official for diplomatic and security policy.

After meeting with Yamaguchi, Jung told reporters, "During my three-day visit to Japan, I felt that without exception, everyone expressed expectations for a new Korea-Japan relationship," and conveyed the atmosphere, "We both feel that much has changed." Regarding the meeting with Director Akiba, he was reserved, saying, "I cannot disclose details, but we reaffirmed what has already been discussed."

The delegation held successive meetings the previous day with the Japan-Korea Parliamentarians' Union and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Economy, Trade and Industry, and Defense.