New Regionalism across the Korea-Japan Strait: Opportunities and Challenges for the Cross-Border Cooperation between Busan and Fukuoka in Light of the Scandinavian Øresund Region

The recent dramatic alliance between Busan and Fukuoka constitutes one of the most concrete features of post-sovereign governance in East Asia. This substate transnational cooperation implies a new regional development strategy that promotes a cross-border spatial redistribution of industries, on the one hand, and a new scale of political space, sometimes dubbed the “mezzo-government,” on the other. This article examines the opportunities and challenges facing the collaborative regional development across the Korea-Japan Strait in light of European experiences. A case study of the substate cross-border cooperation between Sweden and Denmark through the Øresund Channel puts forth some lessons for the Korea-Japan Strait Economic Zone: the double regionalization, both internal and external, is pursued in parallel with a decentralization of economic power; the core of the development strategy is to create an economy of labor market by gathering a skilled workforce and employers across the border; finally, the soft infrastructure for exchanges, such as private sector-public sector-university cooperation system, is necessary to concretize cross-border cooperation. The review of current situations of the inter-local alliance across the Korea-Japan Strait underlines the zone’s strength in geo-economic proximity, possible industrial synergy, and grass-root regional social capital, but also shows that the inter-city ‘diplomacy’ needs the central governments’ supports in terms of financial autonomy and political legitimacy.