S. Korean business body cancels ceremony with Kofu

Asian Economic News, August 20, 2001

KOFU, Japan, Aug. 15 Kyodo

A business body in Chongju, South Korea, has canceled a ceremony in October to mark the 10th anniversary of relations with its counterpart in Kofu due to soured relations between Tokyo and Seoul over a bilateral textbook dispute, Kofu business officials said Wednesday.

The Kofu Chamber of Commerce and Industry accepted a proposal by the Chongju chamber of commerce to cancel the ceremony in the central South Korean city to commemorate their 10-year sister relations, Kofu chamber officials said.

In a fax sent to the Kofu chamber on Aug. 2, the Chongju chamber also said it hopes educators in Yamanashi Prefecture will use their knowledge and wisdom in choosing school history textbooks, the officials said.

The Kofu chamber replied to the Chongju chamber on Monday that it wants to hold the ceremony after bilateral relations improve again, they said.

The ceremony was originally scheduled for early October when Chongju holds an international handicraft exhibition, they said, adding the Kofu chamber also gave up another plan to exhibit traditional Kofu handicrafts, such as crystal sculptures and wallets made of deer skin.

Japan's Asian neighbors reacted with outrage when the Japanese government in April approved junior high school history textbooks that they say attempt to justify Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and whitewash its wartime atrocities.