Nearly 70 percent of Koreans support pursuing an EU-style economic community with Japan, while 60 percent of Japanese respondents agreed, according to a survey released Monday by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI). KCCI, which has repeatedly floated the idea of a Korea-Japan economic community as a response to shifting global trade rules, commissioned Hankook Research to survey 500 people each in Korea and Japan. Some 69.8 percent of Korean respondents favored forming an EU-style bloc, either immediately or over the medium term, versus 59.8 percent of Japanese respondents. Support among Japanese who had visited Korea in the past five years reached 74.5 percent, compared with 45.4 percent among those who had not. Support for expanded tourism cooperation stood at 76.8 percent in Korea and 58 percent in Japan. A majority in both countries — 60.4 percent of Koreans and 44.8 percent of Japanese — backed allowing travel between the two countries using only a national ID card instead of a passport. Only 17.5 percent of Japanese citizens held a passport as of February 2025, ac