Katsushika Mayor To South Korea Sister City Visit Postponed August 8, 11:50
While the exchange business between Japan and South Korea has been suspended due to the deterioration of Japan-Korea relations, visits to the sister cities in South Korea by the mayors of Tokyo and Katsushika Ward scheduled from 19th this month I understand that the request was postponed.
Katsushika Ward in Tokyo has a sister city partnership with Mapo Ward in Seoul, South Korea, and has been deepening friendships by dispatching visiting teams for over 10 years.
From 19th to 21st of this month, Katsutoshi Aoki, Katsushika Ward, and others headed Mapo Ward and planned to observe the stadiums that were the venue for the 2002 Japan-Korea World Cup soccer. According to the person, the person in charge of Mapo Ward requested to postpone the visit on the 5th of this month.
Regarding the reason for the postponement request, the person in charge explained that `` There is a possibility that it will not be able to entertain the visiting team sufficiently under the current situation that the feelings towards Japan in Korea are getting worse, '' the background is during the Pacific War It seems that there is a problem concerning the “recruitment” of the government, and that the Japanese government has decided to exclude Korea from the preferential countries for export control.
Katsushika City's policy is to postpone the visit with respect to the intentions of the Mapo Ward side, but since we can't predict the resumption time, we will continue to encourage the Mapo Ward side to continue the visit.
History of Katsushika City and Mapo City Friendship
Mapo, Katsushika's sister city, is one of 25 wards in Seoul, the capital of South Korea.
According to the website of Katsushika City, since the 2008 Japan-Korea Friendship League of the Katsushika City Council visited Mapo Ward, the executives of both sides repeatedly paid a courtesy visit to each other, through choral and boy soccer friendly games, etc. We deepened friendship and concluded sister city tie-up in November, 2015.
In April, a visiting group including elementary school students from Mapo Ward came to Japan and had just played a futsal game with a team of elementary school students in Katsushika City.
Affected by the deterioration of relations between Japan and Korea
This month in relation to Japan-Korea relations, the exchange business between Seto City, Aichi Prefecture and its sister city in South Korea was suspended due to an offer by the Korean side, and Kanazawa City will also be held in South Korea's sister city this month. The artist was scheduled to be dispatched to a traditional craft exhibition, but the exhibition has been postponed.
On the other hand, in the case of airline flights, Korean tourists have been cancelled one after another at Seoul's Yonago Airport in Tottori Prefecture, and the number of users last month decreased by more than 30% compared to a year ago. South Korea's LCC = cheap airline will be suspended for more than a month from next month, and the relationship between the two countries seems to be affected.
When NHK confirmed with the local governments in South Korea that they have a relationship with sister cities and friendship cities in Korea, there are no talks about the cancellation or postponement of events except for Katsushika City. There are concerns about expansion.