Busan, South Korea, vies to host 2030 World Expo, Japanese government considers support. | WPN World People News

Considering the improvement of relations with South Korea, Japan reportedly confirmed that it will support South Korea's Busan's bid to host the World Expo 2030, hoping to enhance Japan-South Korea relations by supporting South Korea's Yoon Seok-yul government.

Three cities, Busan, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Rome in Italy, are vying for the right to host the World Expo 2030, which is expected to be decided by the Bureau of International Exhibitions (BIE) in a vote at its general meeting tomorrow (28). The Japanese government was originally inclined to support Riyadh because of its dependence on crude oil imports from the Middle East, but the Yoon Seok-yeol administration has been trying to improve Japan-Korea relations, which eventually made the Japanese government decide to support South Korea.

A Japanese government source said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida informally conveyed the idea of supporting South Korea during his on-site leadership talks with Yun Seok-yeol at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in India in September.

Korea attaches great importance to the bid to host the World Expo, and Foreign Minister Park Jin-jae also expressed his hope that China and Japan would support Korea in its bid to host the World Expo during a lunch meeting among the foreign ministers of China, Korea and South Korea yesterday (26). Osaka, Japan will host the World Expo in 2025, and if Busan's bid is successful, Japan intends to share its experience of hosting the Osaka-Kansai Expo with Korea.