Japan-S. Korea Exchange Festival Held in Seoul

Jiji Press

15:07 JST, September 23, 2024

Seoul (Jiji Press)—A Japan-South Korea exchange festival was held in Seoul on Sunday, bringing together a number of South Koreans interested in Japanese culture and food.

The event came at a time when more and more South Koreans are visiting Japan on the back of improving relations between the two East Asian neighbors and the yen’s weakening.

Booths set up by Japanese local governments to introduce regional tourist spots and specialties were crowded with visitors hoping to find hints for deciding destinations for their future trips to Japan.

A long line was formed at a booth of an association in Seoul of people from Fukushima Prefecture, which allowed visitors to taste Hiroki and Sharaku, both sake from the northeastern Japan prefecture.

Before the March 2011 powerful earthquake and tsunami, which mainly struck northeastern Japan, South Koreans accounted for about half of foreign tourists visiting Fukushima, Koshiro Nagai, head of the association, said. The number of South Korean tourists to Fukushima “has not recovered yet,” he said.

Noting that people in South Korea still appear to be concerned about agricultural and marine products from Fukushima, Nagai said he hopes that South Koreans will know more about Fukushima through locally produced sake.

The 2011 disaster led to an unprecedented triple reactor meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station.. The release of treated water containing tritium, a radioactive substance, from the plant into the sea started in August 2023.

A 26-year-old corporate worker from Suwon, near Seoul, one of the visitors to the festival, said that sake from Fukushima has a fruity taste, adding that it is important to promote what is good about Fukushima.

Visitors also flocked to a booth set up by Shizuoka Prefecture, where they could wear a headgear shaped like Mount Fuji and take pictures.

“Shizuoka is warm even in winter, and it has many hot spring resorts,” Makoto Takahashi, head of the central Japan prefecture’s Seoul office said. “You’ll be able to see Mount Fuji covered with snow soon,” he added.

Mount Fuji, with a height of 3,776 meters, is the tallest mountain in Japan and a UNESCO World Heritage site. It straddles Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures.

The 20th Japan-South Korea exchange festival also featured Myaku-Myaku, the official character of the 2025 World Exposition in the western Japan city of Osaka, to promote the event to be held for six months from April on the artificial island of Yumeshima.

Singers from Japan and South Korea also performed at the Seoul event.

The exchange festival started in 2005. A similar event is set to take place in Tokyo on Saturday and Sunday as part of this year’s exchange festival.