On August 5, Secretary-General Lim Byung-jin visited Koichi Mizushima, Japanese Ambassador to South Korea. Offering his congratulations to Mr. Mizushima for his appointment as the Japanese Ambassador to Seoul, Mr. Lim provided an introduction to NEAR, the largest multi-lateral platform for the local governments of Northeast Asia. He also shared NEAR’s major projects for this year and the current status of the Japanese member-regions, asking for active support from the Japanese Embassy to encourage active participations of Japanese members.
In response, Mr. Mizushima acknowledged a central role that NEAR has been playing as the multi-lateral platform for the local governments of Northeast Asia, and promised his full support to encourage Japanese regions to share their success cases via NEAR platform as well as to promote exchanges between local governments of Korea and Japan.
Mr. Mizushima was officially appointed as the new Japanese Ambassador to Seoul on May 17, who previously served as minister at the Japanese Embassy in Korea from 2017 to 2019. He said that South Korea is one of the most important partners of Japan when it comes to addressing international affairs, and that he will do his best to improve bilateral relations between the two nations.