By Ian Werther in News — 14 Mar 2026

South Korea pitches AI-led growth and market access to global investors in Tokyo

South Korea’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, Ku Yun-cheol, traveled to Tokyo on the 13th to present to about 100 global investors at a Korea-focused investment briefing organized with Bloomberg’s Japan office. The event was held at a Bloomberg-hosted forum in Tokyo.

Ku used the platform to point to Korea’s competitive strengths in semiconductors, nuclear power, shipbuilding, and defense, and to emphasize the government’s ongoing push to activate the capital markets and broaden foreign investor access. He said the government will pursue AI-driven transformation and ultra-innovative economy initiatives to raise potential growth, declaring that now is the moment for international investors to pay attention to Korea.

The Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) hosted GES+, an intensive day-long program designed to connect 150 emerging youth and women entrepreneurs with investors and leaders in the entrepreneurship space, on June 22, 2016 at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. [GES Photo/Public Domain] — Representative image for context; not directly related to the specific event in this article. License: Public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance noted that Korea’s exports have extended a nine-month streak of record monthly highs, and that macro conditions remain robust with prudent management of debt and external obligations. The ministry also highlighted the country’s solid fiscal and external balance as a backdrop to potential投资.

In addition, the ministry referenced Korea’s inbound tourism, which neared 19 million visitors last year, and the global appeal of Korean cultural content. Officials said the government plans to broaden investment access by opening the foreign exchange market to 24 hours and building offshore won settlement infrastructure.

Attendees reportedly showed strong interest in Korea’s foreign exchange and government bond markets, as well as in Korea’s policy direction and overall market prospects, signaling significant demand among international investors.

The Copernicus Sentinel-2A satellite takes us over the Japanese capital of Tokyo.
Tokyo lies on the eastern shore of the island of Honshu, the largest of Japan’s four main islands. Greater Tokyo, which fans out further to the north and northwest than this image shows, is home to almost 38 million people, making it the largest megacity in the world.
The grey tones of this urban conurbation dominate the image and are in sharp contrast to the dark greens of the rugged mountains that flank the city to the west. The city centre lies mainly to the south of the Arakawa River, which empties into Tokyo Bay. The bay can be seen in the bottom right of the image. While many boats are visible in the bay, so is the Aqua-line, which is a combination of a bridge and a tunnel that spans the bay. The Aqua-line can be seen on the east side of the bay as a bridge that then disappears underwater as a tunnel. It has an overall length of almost 23.7 km, almost 10 km of which is tunnel – the fourth longest underwater tunnel in the world. A building that provides ventilation, as well as serves a rest stop, appears as an island-like structure above the tunnel.
More than half of the global population live in urban areas and, as more people flock to cities, expansion and development needs to be planned and monitored. The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission offers essential information for urban planners and decision-makers around the world.

The image, which is also featured on the Earth from Space video programme, was captured by Sentinel-2A on 8 May 2017. — Representative image for context; not directly related to the specific event in this article. License: CC BY-SA 3.0 igo. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Before the briefing, Ku met with executives from Mitsui Sumitomo Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Mizuho Securities, Nomura Securities, Daiwa Securities, and Bloomberg, among others. The discussions touched on potential cooperation and the broader financial relationship between Korea and Japan.

Ku also expressed hope that improving Korea–Japan ties could translate into deeper cooperation in financial and economic areas, and pledged that the government would actively assist investors if obstacles to investing in Korea arise. For U.S. readers, the events underscore Korea’s role in global supply chains for chips, energy tech, and defense, as well as ongoing efforts to improve market access and currency liquidity that can affect cross-border investment and procurement.

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