The Tokyo Korea Center, established to promote Korea-related culture and tourism services, has had its grand opening in Shinjuku.
The center's opening ceremony on Thursday (June 18) was attended by Korean Culture Minister Yu In-chon and his Japanese counterpart Tamotsu Aoki, along with some 300 officials and culture representatives from the two countries, including Director Kim He-beom of the Korea Culture and Information Service.
The center is an eight-story building housing a 307-seat theater, a gallery and a library of books and documents on Korean culture and art.
It also has a traditional Korean garden, where visitors can see firsthand the traditional Korean esthetics of natural flora meeting human labors.
The Korean government is in the process of building large culture centers to unify and replace existing small-scale state-run culture institutions in foreign cities.
The Tokyo Korea Center is the fourth such establishment to open overseas since the government announced its plan to integrate small centers.
There are three such centers in Los Angeles, Beijing and Shanghai and one is to open in New York in 2012.