About 300 global leaders from business, government and academia gathered Thursday in Tokyo to kick off a two-day meeting of the World Economic Forum on East Asia to discuss development and the environment as well as regional economic integration.
It is the first time the organizer of the World Economic Forum, held in Davos, Switzerland, has organized a regional conference in Japan. The conference is being held at a hotel in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
At a news conference to open the meeting, Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, praised the first gathering in Japan of representatives from more than 30 economies.