The governor of South Korea's South Chungcheong will make a four-day visit to Japan this week to deepen the province's cooperative ties with Japanese prefectures, the South Korean provincial government said Thursday.

Gov. Ahn Hee-jung is scheduled to leave for Tokyo on Friday for talks with officials of the pro-Seoul Korean Residents Union in Japan, to discuss ways to promote cultural exchanges for youths of the two countries before heading to Shizuoka, southwest of Tokyo, the next day to take part in an academic forum on the sustainable development of agriculture.

Topics for this year's East Asia Provincial Government Agriculture Forum, which will bring together about 300 representatives of local governments from South Korea, China and Japan, include the linkage of foods to agriculture, health and longevity, urban-rural exchanges and the sixth industrialization of the farming sector, or the integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries as part of efforts to spur agricultural growth.