SEOUL: A meeting of Japanese and South Korean business leaders will be postponed due to deteriorating relations between the Tokyo and Seoul.
The Japan-Korea Economic Association, a business group that hosts an annual meeting of public and private economic officials, announced the delay on its website on Mar. 8. The conference was slated to take place in May, but it has been pushed back to the latter half of this year.
The group has held the meeting to encourage economic exchanges between the two countries every year since 1969. In 2018 it took place in Tokyo, so this year it is set to be held in Seoul. Japanese companies with operations in South Korea have not moved to cut business there amid worsening relations, but concerns can be seen in increased public relations efforts.
The organization asked the South Korean government to take steps to protect Japanese business activity in South Korea, and asked the Japanese government to work toward ensuring such measures are put in place.
South Korea’s Maeil Business Newspaper reported on Monday that the meeting would be postponed until September or later. It cited a South Korean person familiar with the matter as saying that it would be difficult for the Japanese side to join in the meeting in Seoul considering the sudden diplomatic chill after last year’s court decisions about compensation for forced labor.
