Interior ministry wraps up Korean pavilion at Tokyo safety exhibition

The interior ministry said Thursday that 23 Korean disaster-safety companies held 561 business consultations worth about 68 billion won ($50.8 million) and signed three agreements during a Korean pavilion at a Tokyo safety exhibition last week.

The pavilion at RISCON Tokyo 2026, held from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 at Tokyo Big Sight, was the ministry's third consecutive year of running a national booth to help smaller Korean firms enter the Japanese market. Eight companies backed by the interior ministry and 15 supported by the Busan, North Jeolla Province and South Gyeongsang Province governments showed earthquake warning systems, fire-response products and rescue and emergency equipment.

The three agreements covered product sales and distribution and technical cooperation. The companies also met local buyers and investors during a briefing on Japanese market entry and an investor relations session introducing Korean products.

The Tokyo exhibition, in its 22nd year, drew 380 companies running 550 booths and about 21,000 visitors, including government and public agency officials and private-sector executives.

Separately, the ministry held talks with Japan's Cabinet Office on revising an existing memorandum of understanding on disaster management, with the launch of a Japanese disaster management agency as a backdrop. The two sides discussed expanding exchanges in the safety industry and explored the possibility of organizing a Japanese pavilion at South Korea's safety industry exhibition in 2027. They also agreed on the need to combine their countries' technological strengths to compete in the global disaster-safety market.

"Over three years of operating the Korean pavilion at the RISCON exhibition, we have confirmed the strong technology of our disaster-safety companies and the potential of the Japanese market," Park Hyung-bae, head of the ministry's safety prevention policy office, said. "We will continue expanding exchanges and cooperation in disaster-safety policy and the safety industry and actively support our companies' entry into overseas markets."

The ministry said it will keep up follow-up support so that consultations and agreements turn into actual exports, and will consult with relevant agencies to select the overseas exhibitions where it will run a Korean pavilion next year.