On Monday, July 21, the Northeast Asian History Foundation held an academic conference titled "Korea-Japan Relations Seen from Japan: Society, History, and Politics" in the foundation’s main conference room.

Although there have been various academic exchanges between Korea and Japan to date, exchanges centered around the next generation of researchers have been relatively limited. To address this, the foundation organized the conference with the aim of creating a "window for dialogue" among emerging scholars from both countries.

From Japan, leading next-generation scholars in Korean studies participated, including Chihiro Narita (Ritsumeikan University), Yuko Takahashi (Osaka Metropolitan University), Shunsuke Ito (Fukushima University), Eriei Iikura (Kanazawa University), and Yoshihiro Ogata (Fukuoka University). Their presentations addressed a wide range of topics that promote reflection on the past—such as Okinawa, atomic bomb victims, state violence, colonial legacies, and the identity of Koreans in Japan—and also help frame contemporary Korea-Japan relations within a broader East Asian context.

On the Korean side, scholars including Junhwan Gong (Seoul National University), Eunjung Oh (Kangwon National University), Jina Yang (The Northeast Asian History Institute), Wan Park (Sookmyung Women’s University), and Jaejoon Shin (Jeonju National University of Education) led discussions, identifying differences in perspectives between the two countries and fostering shared awareness of key issues.

President Park Jihang expressed her hopes that the conference would "serve as an opportunity for next-generation researchers from Korea and Japan to share their concerns and research methodologies through academic exchange, and to gain new insights."