Japan after the South Korean government lifted the 30-year ban on cultural exchange with Japan that had been in place since 1948. Korean pop cultural products' success in the Japanese market is partially explained by the borrowing of Japanese ideas such as the star-marketing system and heavy promotion of new television shows and music. Korean dramas such as "Winter Sonata" and "Coffee Prince," as well as K-pop artists such as BIGBANG and SHINee are very popular with Japanese consumers. Most recently, South Korean President Moon Jae-in met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the 2017 G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany
Kozo Yamamoto appointed his ministerships in 2016. Yamamoto is a known advocate of reflation policies, and is one of the first to argue for using monetary easing tools to overcome deflation in Japan. As a longtime critic of the Bank of Japan's monetary tightening policies in the Diet, he chaired multiple study groups on monetary policy when the LDP was out of power, and appealed to Shinzo Abe the need for quantitative easing. Yamamoto proposed the consumption tax increase of April 2014 to Abe Shinzo, and advised swift action. He also advocated for basic allowances and various public-works projects for low-income earners