| Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Chairman Park Yong-maan, second from left, and Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Akio Mimura, second from right, attend the 11th Korea-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Summit Meeting in Hokkaido in this July 2017 file photo. / Courtesy of KCCI |
Japan's stance on forced labor ruling sees annual meeting in Busan cancelled
By Park Jae-hyuk
Business ties between Korea and Japan have been deteriorating because of Tokyo's hostile attitude toward a recent Supreme Court ruling here on forced labor during the colonial occupation, industry officials said Sunday.
According to the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), the Korea-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Summit Meeting, which was due to be held in Busan Nov. 12 and 13, was cancelled because the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) wanted to put the issue on the agenda.
“We wanted to talk about economic issues only, without mentioning political and social issues including the forced labor ruling,” a KCCI spokesman said. “Japan did not accept our demand, so we cancelled this year's meeting.”
The spokesman said the annual meeting would probably resume in Japan in 2019.
The two chambers take turns in hosting the meeting.
“JCCI officials visited our office Nov. 8 and said they understood our decision on the Busan meeting,” he said. “The two chambers agreed to try their best to resume the summit next year.”
It is speculated that the JCCI highlighted the forced labor issue, because incumbent Chairman Akio Mimura is an honorary chairman of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, the company ordered to compensate Koreans who worked as forced laborers during Japan's colonial rule of Korea between 1910 and 1945.
On Nov. 7, Mimura called for prompt normalization of relations between Korea and Japan, saying Japanese firms had been able to build their factories here and do businesses, thanks to the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea signed in 1965.
Japan has argued that it settled the forced labor issue on a government-to-government basis under the 1965 agreement, while Korea has urged Japan to compensate individuals.
Other business lobbies in Japan, including the Japan Business Federation and the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, also said they were concerned about possible damage to business ties after the ruling.
Against this backdrop, the Japanese Embassy in Korea held a meeting of Japanese businessmen in Korea, Nov. 15, to assure them that they did not have to compensate anybody.
“The Japanese government's consistent position, as stated in various opportunities, is that (the matter) was completely and finally settled in the 1965 accord,” Kohei Maruyama, a minister at the embassy, was quoted as saying.
The Japanese Embassy allowed the Japanese press to observe the meeting, but banned the Korean press from entering.