Government and National Assembly officials, including Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Choi Hwi-young and Lee Jae-jung, Chair of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee of the National Assembly, visited Tokyo Game Show 2026 held at Makuhari Messe on September 20.
Minister Choi Hwi-young, who visited Japan to coincide with the opening ceremony of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, toured booths at TGS starting with Netmarble, followed by NHN PlayArt, Smilegate, the Korea Joint Pavilion, NCSOFT, and Nexon, meeting with Korean gaming industry representatives to directly check on their overseas influence and industry challenges. In addition to Committee Chair Lee Jae-jung, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Jeong-mun and People Power Party lawmaker Cho Eun-hee also attended the venue.
Minister Choi stated to reporters, "I visited to see where Korea stands in the global gaming market. There were concerns recently that our country's games were slowing down and falling behind China, but seeing such wonderful games being released gives me confidence," expressing his commitment to support, saying, "I will help restore our past prestige and foster even greater growth." He added, "I want to hear if small and medium-sized game studios face difficulties entering overseas markets and see what support we can provide."
Regarding G-STAR, Korea's representative game show taking place two months from now, he also noted, "I came to check if there are aspects (at TGS) we can emulate or improve upon. Since G-STAR is a very important game show, I will consider how we can make it more vibrant and expand it into a game show that truly represents South Korea."
