Korea and Japan business groups form jointly managed future funds

Korea and Japan’s main business lobbies will establish funds for joint projects as part of the effort to further restore relations between the two countries.

Kim Byong-joon, left, acting chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), and Keidanren Chairman Masakazu Tokura during a joint press conference held at the Japanese lobbying group’s office building in Tokyo, Thursday [FKI]

Korea and Japan’s main business lobbies will establish funds for joint projects as part of the effort to further restore relations between the two countries, which have been fraught over the past three years due to wartime forced labor compensation issues.

The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), a major business lobbying group, and Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, on Thursday held a press conference in Tokyo to announce the creation of “future partnership funds,” in advance of a summit between Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that day.

FKI and Keidanren with each establish a fund, and the two funds will be jointly managed by a governing body jointly chaired by the heads of FKI and Keidanren.

The funds will be used for joint business and research projects in a wide variety of areas, including energy and raw materials security, digital transformation and demographic shift, as well as promoting human exchanges between two countries, according to the lobbying groups.

The establishment of the funds came after the Korean government announced its decision to compensate victims of Japan's wartime forced labor through a Korea-backed public foundation without set contributions from Japanese companies.

Relations between the two countries have frayed in recent years due to the Korean Supreme Court’s decision in late 2018 calling for compensation of Koreans forced into labor by Japan during World War II.

Addressing the latest government, Keidanren Chairman Masakazu Tokura said that “this is a huge step toward normalizing the relations between the two countries,” during the press conference.

“Following both governments’ latest decisions, the Keidanren and FKI agreed to carry out joint projects and respectively establish a future partnership fund in order to further strengthen the way toward future-oriented relations,” said Tokura.

Kim Byong-joon, acting chairman of FKI, stressed that “the importance of Korea-Japan collaboration is bigger than ever amid the fast-changing global situation affected by Covid-19, the intensifying U.S.-China rivalry, and weaponization of natural resources.”

“FKI and Keidanren will raise the funds, not the individual companies, and whether a company would join the fundraising is up to each company,” said Kim.

FKI and Keidanren will host a business round table meeting on Friday in Tokyo.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]