On January 11(Thur.) and 12(Fri.) 2018 Harada Norihisa, seconded officer from Toyama Prefecture, Japan and other officers visited the Niigata Prefectural Office in Seoul and the CLAIR (Council of Local Authorities for International Relations) Office in Seoul. The delegation gave a brief introduction on NEAR and the subcommittees on Logistics and Transportation, International Exchange on Humanities, and E-Commerce which were newly established at the NEAR Working Committee held in September last year in Hunan Province.

Abe Tetsuya, the appointed Director of the Niigata Prefectural Office in Seoul since September of last year, said that he would actively support NEAR events and promote Niigata as the home of Kubota, Japanese Sake. Yoshinori Yamada, Director of the CLAIR Office in Seoul, said at the meeting that he would actively promote cooperation with Japanese officials in Korea at NEAR events such as the NEAR International Forum for participation to Japanese resident officers in Korea.