Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Cho Yoonsun visited Tokyo to attend the World Forum on Sport and Culture and the World Economic Forum, on Oct. 20 and 21.

During her trip to Japan, she held meetings with representatives from the Japanese content and tourism industries and discussed measures to expand exchanges between Korea and Japan.

Her meetings were attended by representatives from Japanese broadcasters, including Shochiku Broadcasting, Digital Adventure, TC Entertainment and ACROS, importers and distributors of Korean content, such as NBC Universal Japan, Contents Seven and Pony Canyon, and representatives from Korean broadcasters in Japan, like KBS Japan and CJ E&M Japan.

Minister Cho exchanged opinions with them about ways to expand the joint market for cultural content in Korea and Japan, and how to revive the Korean cultural boom, the so-called "Korean Wave," or Hallyu.






Meeting participants proposed the creation of an environment where content could be jointly produced among Korean and Japanese companies. They aimed to promote Hallyu-related content by running social media ads that target Hallyu fans, and they hoped to protect content created this way by forming a cooperative structure between Korean and Japanese companies and related organizations.

Minister Cho thanked them for the meeting and for sharing with her their views in an open manner. She said, “If needed, we will surely improve any areas through discussions between both countries at the government level.”

She told them that, “Korea has only been able to see today’s growth of Hallyu in Japan thanks to your passion and efforts.”

“The Korean government will support the content industries in Korea and Japan so that creative companies in both countries can actively work together, such as on the joint production and joint marketing in various sectors, backed by each other's strengths,” the minister said.





The next day, the minister held a series of meetings with Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Matsuno Hirokazu and President Katsuto Momii of NHK to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation and exchanges in the content industries of Korea and Japan.

The minister expressed her appreciation to NHK President Katsuto Momii for helping Korean content boom across Japan. She proposed hosting a series of celebratory events, such as joint concerts involving Korea, Japan and China, to mark upcoming Olympic Games, and joint music festivals between Korean and Japanese musicians in order to mark the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games, and the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.





Minister Cho also worked on vitalizing the tourism industries in Korea and Japan. During her trip, she met members of the Tourism Vision group, which is led by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. During a meeting with advisory members from the private sector, she learned more about the rapidly growing in-bound tourism industry in Japan and listened to their proposals for the Korean tourism industry as it targets international visitors. To this aim, she met with Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Keiichi Ishiii to touch on measures to bolster tourism cooperation between Korea Japan, and many other areas. The two ministers talked about how to respond to tourism crises due to earthquakes, and measures to cope with the scheduled Olympic Games, which will be hosted in each country over the coming years.





Minister Cho also participated in a meeting for sports ministers, as part of the World Forum on Sport and Culture. She delivered a presentation on the theme of sports integrity, especially in regard to the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, and exchanged views with the ministers and vice ministers from about 50 countries.

She attended the World Economic Forum where she exchanged views with experts from both the public and private sector from around the globe, and the theme this year was “Leaving the legacy: Mega sporting events.”





Minister Cho held a meeting with Philipp Rösler, head of the Centre for Regional Strategies at the World Economic Forum, to discuss industry 4.0, the content industry, and the Korean government's Culture and Creativity Fusion Belt.

The minister explained to him the Korean government's policies to promote the content industry, saying that, “Through the Culture and Creativity Fusion Belt, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is working to create an ecosystem with a virtuous feedback loop designed to incubate talented people and creative ideas, so that their ideas can be commercialized and distributed.”





Rösler responded by saying that, “Germany also has a similar, yet smaller, system that supports people with creative ideas but who lack the business acumen to realize their potential.”

“The creative economy should never be underestimated,” Rösler concluded.

By Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos: Heo Manjin, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
arete@korea.kr