The Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) said Tuesday it will dispatch a mission to Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam from March 28 to April 6.
Japan's largest business lobby said the mission is aimed at exchanging opinions with officials and industrialists in each country on a "comprehensive economic partnership" between Japan and Southeast Asian nations that was proposed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi earlier this month.
During his five-nation tour of Southeast Asia, Koizumi proposed a closer partnership between Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to boost ties on a broad front with the goal of forming additional free-trade agreements with those countries.
The mission will discuss such trade arrangements in more specific terms, Keidanren officials said.
In Singapore, which signed a free-trade agreement with Japan on Jan. 13, the mission will meet Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.
In Thailand, where expectations are increasing for a possible free-trade agreement with Japan, the mission is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the officials said.