Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 21 (IANS): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is leading a delegation of two state ministers, bureaucrats and others for a 13-day trip to Japan and South Korea. The delegation on Friday and will return on December 4th.

The visit is aimed at scouting for investments into Kerala and for seeing the latest developments in those countries, which can be replicated in the state.

Since assuming office, Vijayan has so far travelled to the Middle East, Europe and US.

His latest visit has come under criticism from the opposition as the state is passing through one of its worst ever financial crisis with mounting public debt and very poor resource mobilisation.

They even questioned the positive outcomes of his earlier foreign trips.

The assembly session that ended on Thursday saw the opposition strongly attacking the government's mismanagement of state finances by economist-turned Finance Minister Thomas Issac.