Culture Minister Choung Byoung-gug will visit Japan on Friday to console earthquake victims and discuss ways to boost tourism between the two countries, his ministry said Thursday. The visit was arranged to follow up on a bilateral agreement signed during the sixth talks between the tourism ministers of South Korea, China and Japan to build a joint response system to cope with the disaster-caused tourism crisis, according to the ministry. The meeting was held in PyeongChang, 180 kilometers east of Seoul, in May.