FKI, Keidanren launch fund for Korea-Japan partnerships

TOKYO – Major business lobby groups of South Korea and Japan have created a partnership fund of 200 million yen ($1.5 million) to accelerate industrial cooperation and youth exchanges amid warming relations between the two countries.

The two groups, the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) and Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), said on Wednesday they have created the organization to manage the fund and selected the industries for cooperation.

The FKI and Keidanren on March 16 jointly announced they will launch a “Future Partnership Fund," the day of the summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The joint fund will receive 100 million yen from each group and further commitment from private companies of the two countries.

The fund will be used to promote exchange programs for young talent of both countries and strengthen partnerships in semiconductor supply chains and energy security, phase-out of coal and digital transformation, and work toward a free and open international relationship. As a first step, the two groups will hold a forum to discuss issues on chip supply and decarbonization in Seoul on July 6.

THIRD-PARTY REIMBURSEMENT FOR LABOR VICTIMS

The fund was created as a part of a solution to compensate Korean victims of Japan’s forced labor under 1910-1945 Japanese colonial rule. The Korean government has estimated that more than 140,000 people were forced to work for Japanese companies including Nippon Steel Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. during the period.

The bereaved families of 10 out of the 15 forced labor victims, who won a lawsuit against the Japanese companies in 2018, decided last month to accept the compensation from a foundation under Korea’s interior and safety ministry.

Seoul and Tokyo have agreed to create the partnership fund as a third-party reimbursement plan. It has not been decided whether the Japanese companies, which mobilized Korean laborers during wartime, will make commitments to the fund.

Masakazu Tokura, chairman at both Keidanren and Sumitomo Chemical Co. said the fund must include or exclude commitment from certain companies, such as Nippon Steel or Mitsubishi. Some Japanese have expressed their intention to join the fund, he added.

Kim Byong-joon, acting chairman of the FKI, said the fund is open to all companies, regardless of whether they are members of the Korean business lobby group.

The two groups have established two committees for the fund. Co-chaired by Tokura and Kim, the fund operation committee will include Kim Yoon, chair of Samyang Holdings Corp., Lee Woong-yeol, honorary chair of Kolon Group, and Bae Sang-geun, an FKI executive, as Korean members.

The Japanese members include Yasuhiro Sato, senior advisor at Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Toshiaki Higashihara, chairman at Hitachi Ltd., and Masakazu Kubota, vice chairman and president at Keidanren.

The advisory committee includes Kang Sung-jin, a professor at the economics department of Korea University, and Yukiko Fukagawa, a professor of political science and economics at Waseda University, an expert on Korea’s economic development.   

Write to Yeong-Hyo Jeong and Jae-Fu Kim at hugh@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.