Jongno-gu has earned the 2026 Korea Reading-Friendly Workplace certification for the 10th consecutive year.
The certification regime, run by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Publishing Industry Promotion Agency, recognizes companies and institutions that have contributed to spreading a reading culture by creating reading-friendly workplace environments and operating related programs.
The district has worked to support employees' voluntary reading activities and foster an organization-wide reading culture. Its flagship initiative is a "book recommendation relay," in which one employee each week introduces a book that made an impression on them on an internal bulletin board and nominates the next participant. A cumulative total of 387 employees have taken part.
This year, the district also set up a book-exchange shelf and provided incentives for donating and exchanging books, along with online book subscription passes for staff.
District Mayor Yoo Chan-jong said the district would continue to build a reading-friendly organizational environment "so that employees can gain new perspectives and grow through books."
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