The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) announced today (October 15) that it aims to achieve $35 billion in exports to Japan by 2030 through export item diversification and market expansion.

KOTRA unveiled this goal during the "2026 Japan Region Trade and Investment Expansion Strategic Meeting" held in Fukuoka, Japan, presided over by KOTRA President Kang Kyung-sung.

Exports to Japan recorded $29 billion in 2023, $29.6 billion in 2024, and $28.3 billion last year, while exports from January to August of this year reached $21.4 billion, marking a 14.2% increase compared to the same period last year.

KOTRA plans to continue expanding exports building upon this year's upward trend.

Additionally, the agency explained that it will expand cooperation between South Korea and Japan through the diversification of export items, contribution to regional growth, and collaboration in third countries.

Regarding the diversification of export items, KOTRA plans to spread the success of K-beauty in Japan across five major consumer goods sectors, including food, daily necessities, fashion, and pharmaceuticals.

In the advanced materials, parts, and equipment (M-P-E) sector, cooperation will be strengthened in non-semiconductor fields such as shipbuilding, machinery, and robotics. In the green energy sector, KOTRA decided to target Japan's Green Transformation (GX) market, where industrial decarbonization has become mandatory.

Furthermore, KOTRA will transform South Korea-Japan sister and friendly city exchanges into promotional events and business consultations, expanding cooperation with regional distribution networks to extend consumer goods sales channels from major metropolitan distribution networks to smaller regional cities in Japan.

KOTRA will also pursue investment attraction by matching regional strategic industries across South Korea's five mega-regions and three special self-governing provinces with Japanese investors, while fostering AI startups as new export players to solve common social issues in both countries.

Market entry methods will be expanded from offline to online, and joint entry into third countries linked with the overseas production bases of Japanese companies will also be pursued.

President Kang Kyung-sung stated, "Japan is at the forefront of economic security and supply chain reorganization, as well as a core market where K-consumer goods have settled into daily life based on the Korean Wave." He added, "Beyond semiconductors, we will diversify items, players, and methods to fill the next 60 years of South Korea-Japan economic and industrial cooperation with tangible results."

(Photo provided by KOTRA, Yonhap News)