With the resumption of school trips to Korea by Japanese teenagers, attention is focusing on whether tourism exchanges between the two countries, which were suspended due to Corona 19, will recover again.
According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on the 20th, 37 students from Ruteru Gakuen High School in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan will travel to Jeonju and Seoul from the 21st to the 25th for 5 days and 4 nights.
On the first day, the 21st, at 2:00 pm, a welcome ceremony will be held at the arrival hall of Incheon International Airport. Youth Assistant Choi Su-ji of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and 2030 Youth Advisory Group ‘Dreamers’ participate directly.
Japanese youth’s school trip to Korea was first conducted in 1972 and has continued, but has been completely stopped since 2020 in the aftermath of Corona 19. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said that the school trip group’s visit to Korea has the meaning of making a new start in future generation exchanges between Korea and Japan as the relationship between the two countries reached a turning point with the Korea-Japan summit on the 16th.
During this schedule, Japanese teenagers will meet students from Sinheung High School in Jeonju, a sister school, observe classes, and visit a hanok village, wearing hanbok, and interacting with each other.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to further diversify educational travel contents and promote exchanges between schools in order to expand exchanges between future generations of the two countries. Together with the Japanese travel industry, we plan to develop a school trip program with a topic that Japanese schools are interested in, and promote it in major regions in Japan in the first half of the year. During the summer vacation, 100 Japanese middle and high school teachers are invited to Korea for a pilot tour.
In addition, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans the ‘Korea-Japan Future Cultural Companion’ project to promote cultural exchange and cooperation between Korea and Japan, and promotes various projects. In 1998, the ‘Kim Dae-jung-Obuchi Declaration’ marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of popular culture and the 20th anniversary of NHK’s airing of the drama ‘Winter Sonata’, and plans to prepare exchange and cooperation projects between the MZ generation of Korea and Japan.
In May, ‘K-comics in Japan’ will be held in Japan to support companies with comics and webtoon IPs entering Japan. In October, the K-Pop Japan Showcase (Korea Spotlight) will be held, and in November, the 3rd e-sports competition (held in Korea) will be held. Active exchanges at the private level, such as the Tokyo and Osaka tours of the group ‘Blackpink’ (April and June), are also expected to continue.
In addition, sports exchanges between Korea and Japan, which had been suspended due to COVID-19 from April, will resume in earnest. In celebration of the ‘2023 Visit Korea Year’, the recovery of tourism exchanges between the two countries is expected to accelerate, such as holding the ‘K-Tourism Road Show’ in April in five cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Hiroshima and Nagoya.
Minister Park Bo-kyun said, “The trip to Korea by 37 Japanese teenagers is a small start, but it is the first step towards opening up a future-oriented Korea-Japan relationship. Should be. In particular, Korea is the most popular overseas travel destination for Japan’s Gen Z, thanks to the influence of K-pop and K-drama. The tourism sector will serve as an important driving force so that future generations of both countries can develop good feelings for each other and further expand the breadth of understanding.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.