1. The 17th Director-General Meeting on Cultural Diplomacy between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Japan took place in Tokyo, Japan, on February 7, with Ms. Seo Eunji, Director-General for Public Diplomacy and Cultural Affairs of the ROK Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ms. Shino Mitsuko, Director-General for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as head delegates of the two countries.

° The meeting between the ROK and Japanese directors-general for cultural diplomacy is a regular consultative mechanism between the two countries’ Ministries of Foreign Affairs for discussions on ways to promote cultural cooperation, including boosting cultural and people-to-people exchanges. The meeting came six years after the 16th Meeting held in 2014.

2. During the meeting, relevant agencies of the two sides shared the two countries’ policies regarding public and cultural diplomacy and discussed the progress in bilateral cooperation in various areas, including culture, tourism, sports and youth exchanges, as well as ways to follow up on the measures taken by the taskforce formed to facilitate cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the ROK and Japan.