The top leading economic organizations of Korea and Japan met in Tokyo for the first time in four years, agreeing to strengthen cooperation in fostering startups in the two countries. They also agreed to establish trilateral economic cooperation between Korea, the United States, and Japan, and to work together for Korea’s entry into the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) and the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) issued a joint statement to this effect at the 30th Japan-Korea Business Conference at Keidanren Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
The meeting began in 1983. It was suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 but resumed in July 2022 in Seoul. This year’s meeting marked a year and a half since the last meeting in Seoul and more than four years since the last meeting in Japan in November 2019.
At the meeting, the two organizations decided to make joint efforts in three areas -- industrial cooperation, social issues, and international cooperation.
A notable point in their industrial cooperation is a startup cooperation project. To this end, the Japan-Korea Startup Cooperation Forum will be held in early April when 10 Korean startups will visit Tokyo to explain their businesses to large Japanese companies that are members of the Keidanren and discuss investment attraction. In the fall, Japanese startups will come to Korea to find opportunities for business cooperation.
In late 2022, Japan announced a five-year plan to strengthen its support for startups. It aims to invest 10 trillion yen to discover more than 100,000 startups and foster 100 unicorns by 2027.
The partnership between the FKI and Keidanren to foster startups was sparked by a meeting between the two countries’ heads of state at Stanford University in November 2023. The two leaders shared their visions for the future of technology at Stanford University, which is known as the birthplace of innovation. This served as a catalyst for the two business communities to join forces to promote startups.
In the area of international cooperation, the two organizations agreed on the need to build a trilateral economic cooperation platform. To this end, they agreed to consider organizing a trilateral business summit in conjunction with trilateral summits where the three countries’ business communities will explore ways to cooperate with one another. The U.S. partner will be the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They also agreed to work to promote Korea’s accession to the CPTPP, and included the agreement in the joint statement.
Meanwhile, the Future Partnership Fund, established last year with a contribution of 1 billion won from the FKI and 100 million yen from the Keidanren, will invite high school teachers from both countries as its first project.