Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin. (Photo: Lotte Group)

Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin became the first Korean business leader to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga since he took office, succeeding his predecessor Shinzo Abe.

Chairman Shin’s meeting with Prime Minister Suga comes as expectations mount that it could serve as an opportunity mend Korean-Japanese ties, which have been soured for a long period of time.

Prime Minister Suga had a luncheon with Lotte Chairman Shin at The Capital Hotel Tokyu, Tokyo on Oct. 11. Kose President Kazutoshi Kobayashi of Kose Corp., a cosmetics maker, and President Dakashi Sawada of Familymart, a distribution company, also participated in the private meeting.

The meeting came as Korean-Japanese relations have ebbed for a long period of time over historical issues, affecting adversely the business communities of both countries.

The purpose of the private meeting and details were not made public, however.

Korean business sources said they hope the meeting will help thaw the frozen ties between the two countries.

They said the topic of the participants might be related to boosting the tourism industry of both countries, since the participating businessmen are with the distribution and tourism industries.

The sources said the Korean and Japanese businessmen might make a case for active meetings among Korean and Japanese business communities to restore bilateral relations.

Chairman Shin’s closer relations with Japanese date back to his father’s era. The late honorary chairman Shin Kyuk-ho, who launched a business in Japan, had maintained ties with ex-prime minister Abe’s father, former foreign minister Shintaro Abe and his grandfather, ex-prime minister Nobuske Kishi.

Former prime minister Shinzo Abe participated in a wedding banquet for the son of Chairman Shin 2015 along with Japanese political dignitaries, including then prime minister Yashiro Nakasone and ex-prime minister Takeo Fukuda.

Business sources said pro-Tokyo Koreans and pro-Seoul Japanese’ roles are important in making both countries move to rebuild relations.

In September, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jay-yong met with Japanese Ambassador to Korea Goji Tomita and called for relaxing entry restrictions imposed on Korean businessmen.

As lately as Oct. 8, Korea and Japan agreed to facilitate Korean businessmen’s entry to Japan. The relaxation came seven months after Japan stopped Koreans’ no visa entry and imposed other restrictions. Chairman Shin took office as chairman of Japan Lotte Holdings to take helm of the Lotte companies in both Korea and Japan in April.

But former foreign vice minister Shin Kak-soo said it is not easy to put Korean-Japanese relations on a right track unless Korea’s seizing of Japanese assets in Korea and Japan’s ban on chip parts and substance exports to Korea are solved.

Lotte could play a part of delivering complaints and grievances Korean and Japanese businessmen have experienced while doing business, he added.

Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin looks at a car ceramic filter for purifying exhaust fumes at a lab while touring Lotte Fine Chemical’s plant in Ulsan on Nov. 18.

Lotte Group to Enter EV Battery Material Business

Lotte Fine Chemical, a chemical unit of Lotte Group, will invest 290 billion won in a private equity fund, which has been set up to acquire Doosan Solus, a maker of copper foils of electric vehicles, related products and electronic materials.

Lotte Fine Chemical held a board of directors’ meeting on Sept. 23 and gave the go-ahead to the investment plan.

As part of its restructuring to ease financial woes, Doosan Group agreed to sell Doosan Solus to Skylake Investment, a private equity fund, in July.