Bono of U2 Pays a Courtesy Call on Mr. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan

November 29, 2006

Bono, the activist singer of the group U2, is visiting Japan, and at 11:00 a.m. on November 29 (Wed), he paid a courtesy call on Mr. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, at the Prime Minister's Office. They met for about 20 minutes, twice as long as scheduled. The gist of the conversation is as follows. (Amb. Yoichi Otabe, Personal Representative of the Prime Minister for Africa, Mr. Hajime Hayashi, Executive Assistant to the Prime Minister, and Mr. Takaya Imai, Executive Assistant to the Prime Minister, were also present.)

At the beginning of the meeting, Bono presented a pair of (Product) RED Armani sunglasses to Mr. Abe and explained the (Product) RED campaign (Note: This is an innovative form of charitable money-raising involving the private sector. A part of the profit on the RED items sold is donated to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria). In response, Mr. Abe observed that the idea of The Global Fund was born in the wake of 2000 Kyushu-Okinawa Summit, and also mentioned that Japan invited African leaders to that G8 Summit for the first time. Bono praised Japan's contribution, in that the G8 Summit spurred the G8 countries to tackle the problems of infectious diseases in Africa, and said that Japan had earned a good reputation for keeping its promises. Mr. Abe said that Japan would continue to do so despite current fiscal pressures.
Mr. Abe said that Japan has promoted diplomacy for Africa, which is based on the TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development) process, and it would hold the 4th TICAD in 2008 when Japan next hosts the G8 Summit. Mr. Abe said that if Bono visits Japan at that time, Japan would welcome it, because his visit will further raise awareness of the problems in Africa both inside and outside of Japan. In response, Bono said that he would arrange his schedule and try to visit Japan at that time.
Bono remarked that considering Japan's success in its assistance to the Asian region, there would be something to learn from that experience in helping Africa. Mr. Abe replied that other countries had provided assistance to Japan during its postwar years of recovery, and it was in 1990 that it finished paying off all of its debts to those countries. Mr. Abe continued that based on such experience Japan had offered aid to Asia making education a core sector, as well as utilizing loan aid, developing infrastructure and giving consideration to the environment with the intention of helping aid recipients establish their own industries. On assistance to Africa, Mr. Abe stated that Japan had been offering aid to the region from the viewpoint that cooperation between Asia and Africa is important. In response, Bono said that Japan's experience was outstanding. He added that as the assistance to Africa so far had shown relatively small gains for the volume of assistance, Africa needs a new, business-minded approach in assistance.
Bono said in closing that he expected the young generation in Japan to think of assistance from a new viewpoint and lead the world, as Japan had been leading the world in providing aid during the 1990s.

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