A group of governors from Japan and South Korea met here Wednesday to exchange opinions on bilateral and local issues, despite the recent cooling of relations between the two countries.
Governors from Yamaguchi, Fukuoka, Saga and Nagasaki prefectures met with their counterparts from South Kyongsang, South Cholla and Cheju provinces. A vice mayor from Pusan in South Korea also participated in the session. The Japanese and South Korean regions face each other across the Sea of Japan.
The outcome of the talks, held behind closed doors, will be announced at a news conference later in the day, organizers said.
The three South Korean governors expressed concern over Japanese history textbooks that Seoul says gloss over Japan's wartime atrocities and its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, according to Yamaguchi prefectural officials.
Neither side, however, considered canceling the meeting, they said.
The eight local governments have taken turns hosting the annual event, which began in 1992, in an effort to promote mutual understanding and exchanges.