Chey Tae-won's Korea-Japan economic community vision to get long-term road map next month

A long-term road map for the Korea-Japan economic community envisioned by SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won is set to be made public. Scholars from both countries who have spent the past year researching ways to realize the economic community will share their findings and map out phased action items. The event is expected to serve as a turning point for expanding economic cooperation between Korea and Japan — connecting the two markets and fleshing out a cooperation agenda spanning economics, security, technology and culture.

The Chey Tae-won Academy will hold an academic forum on Nov. 12 at the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies building in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, under the theme "From Vision to Action: A Mid- to Long-Term Road Map for a Korea-Japan Economic Community," according to business circles Wednesday. The event is co-hosted by the East Asia Institute and the Chey Tae-won Academy, with support from the Modern Japan Studies Association of Korea and the Nakasone Peace Institute.

Chey, who also serves as chairman of the Chey Tae-won Academy, will deliver a video keynote address at the forum. He is expected to reiterate his longstanding vision that Korea-Japan economic cooperation should evolve beyond simple trade expansion into a genuine economic partnership that jointly grows both countries' markets and industrial ecosystems.

The forum will showcase research aimed at translating that vision into concrete action. Participants have spent the past year studying the vision and phased road map for a Korea-Japan economic community around three themes: solidarity for survival, innovation and appeal.

The plenary session will be chaired by Yeom Jae-ho, president of Taejae University, with a panel featuring Son Yeol, a professor at Yonsei University; Yukiko Fukagawa, a professor at Waseda University; Takashi Terada, a professor at Doshisha University; and Lee Ji-pyeong, a special professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, who will discuss the vision for a Korea-Japan economic community.

Session 1 will take up the theme "Korea-Japan solidarity for survival," focusing on economic and security cooperation. Shin Gak-soo, vice chairman of the NEAR Foundation, will chair the session, with Kim Sang-bae of Seoul National University, Chishima Tomonobu of Hannan University and Choi Jeong-hwan of the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade presenting. Nishino Junya, a senior research fellow at the Nakasone Peace Institute and professor at Keio University, and Kim Seong-jo of Yonsei University will serve as discussants.

Session 2 will address technology and cultural cooperation under the theme "Korea-Japan solidarity for innovation and appeal." Lee Sook-jong of Sungkyunkwan University will chair the session, with presentations by Kim Hang and Han Jun of Yonsei University, Fukushima Minori of Nagoya University of Foreign Studies and Lee Jeong-hwan of Seoul National University. Park Myeong-hui, a legislative researcher at the National Assembly Research Service, and Oh Seung-hee, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, will join as discussants.

Chey has long presented the Korea-Japan economic community as a solution to Korea's structural challenges of low growth and high costs. The combined GDP of Korea and Japan would form an economic bloc exceeding $6 trillion, he argues, making it imperative for the two countries to cooperate in expanding market scale and jointly respond to the fragmentation of the global economy and the spread of protectionism. The underlying rationale is to share costs and risks that individual countries struggle to bear alone, while broadening the foundation for growth.

Concrete cooperation and implementation plans have also been taking shape recently. At the Korea-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairmen's Meeting held in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, in August, Chey discussed supply chain stability, energy security and future industry cooperation with business leaders from both countries. Earlier, at the Nikkei Forum's Korea-Japan Special Session in Tokyo in June, he proposed a standing consultative body called the "Big Tent" for Korea-Japan cooperation in semiconductors, AI and energy.