The Beginning of the Korea-Japan Society and Culture Forum

The Korea-Japan Society and Culture Forum (hereinafter referred to as “the KJ Forum”) is a non-profit organization registered in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea. In 1999, when the Korea-Japan Forum was established, it was a year of dramatic change for Japan-Korea relations. In October 1998 of the previous year, the inflow of Japanese popular culture that was forbidden by law for 38 years has been lifted. Information about Japan that came from the Internet, satellite broadcasting, and low-cost airline tickets has been exposed to all the citizens. Before that, Japanese information was only limited to some people. Since it was released to every Korean citizen, it greatly affected Korean people’s values and their view toward Japan. Therefore, the KJ Forum was established in order to release accurate information about the issues between Japan and South Korea and to have a meeting structure where people can exchange diverse opinions freely.

After the establishment of the KJ Forum, the Japan-Korea Journalists Forum, the Japan-Korea Assembly Forum, the Japan-Korea Municipal Forum and the Japan-Korea Youth Forum, policy officers, intellectuals, journalists and citizens of both countries gathered together to freely discuss about the pending issue between Japan and South Korea. 

In fact, because of the unfortunate history between Japan and South Korea, the intellectual climate discussion on the Japan-Korea issue had never been free. However, based on the belief that realistic countermeasures can be drawn out only by establishing a place for academia and a constructive debate on the site, we have worked hard on setting up a forum to discuss accurately about the issue between Japan and South Korea. We strongly believe that such efforts will develop the uniqueness and identity of the KJ Forum.