OSAKA -- An event that organizers hope will bring together 30,000 Korean residents of Japan and local Japanese will be held at Osaka Dome next month in an effort to deepen exchanges between the two groups, organizers said.
The event, scheduled for March 25 at the dome in Osaka's Nishi Ward, will include musical and dancing performances and will be attended by members of the Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan), a pro-South Korean organization, and the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun), which supports North Korea.
It will be the first time that Mindan and Chongryun representatives will be present together at such a large event, the organizers said Thursday.
The organizers have also invited Osaka Gov. Fusae Ota and Osaka Mayor Takafumi Isomura, as well as local Japanese, to attend.
The organizing group, comprised of 21 Japanese who promote unification of the two Koreas, is headed by former Osaka Gov. Kazuo Nakagawa.
The group also includes Hideo Nakamura, president of the talent agency Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., and actress Eiko Shinya, who has performed in one-act plays about Korean residents of Japan.
A large number of Korean residents of Osaka have expressed their wish to "do something concrete to promote mutual understanding and goodwill between Japan and North Korea, and Japan and South Korea," the organizers said.
They also mentioned the historic summit in June in Pyongyang between South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who is scheduled to visit South Korea this spring.
Currently, the two organizations representing Korean residents of Japan are studying the possibility of forming joint cheering squads for the upcoming 46th World Table Tennis Championships and East Asian Games, both to be held in Osaka.