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In Japanese class, we just learned the grammatical form 「〜に関する」and its various usages. The conjugation 「〜に関しての」was also brought up, and our teacher said that there was virtually no difference between these two forms when using this grammar to modify nouns. I was wondering whether there was any difference, preference, or connotation that these two have that would make the choice of which one to use different based on context, or the noun being modified. Are they truly 100% interchangeable?

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    @kimiTanaka Please try to make sure not to answer questions in the comments section.
    – user1478
    Oct 5, 2017 at 17:55

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The only difference that I could discern would be in the formality level. I could not say that there was a difference in meaning between the two.

「～～に関{かん}する」 sounds just slightly more formal/technical/academic than 「～～に関しての」. The more formal the occasion, the more often one would expect to see/hear the former, IMHO.

That is not to say, however, that 「～～に関しての」 is in any way informal or conversational because we have 「～～についての」 for use in informal speech.

Are they truly 100% interchangeable?

In the stricter sense of the word, no, they are not because of the difference in their formality levels. Would many people care if you used them interchangeably? Perhaps not too many people would seriously partly because this is not a verb, adjective or noun choice we are discussing.

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