Press Conferences

Mr. Mizushima: From April 1st to 9th, approximately 240 youths selected as U-14 soccer players who are expected to flourish in the future in the run-up to the Olympic Games being held in Tokyo in 2020, will visit Japan from 11 countries belonging to the ASEAN Football Federation, which is the 10 ASEAN member countries and Timor-Leste, as part of the JENESYS 2.0 program.
This soccer exchange was introduced to the leaders of each country by Prime Minister Mr. Shinzo Abe on the occasion of the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit Meeting held in Tokyo on December 14th last year, and it was endorsed and welcomed by the leaders of each country.
The delegation will visit Osaka to begin with, and will have an orientation, pay a courtesy call to Sakai City and do soccer training. From April 3 to 6, teams from 12 countries, including Japan, will participate in the Japan-ASEAN Youth Soccer Exchange, which will be held with the cooperation of the Japan Football Association, and will play exchange matches at the J-Green Sakai. Following that, they will watch a J-League match, look around soccer facilities on the outskirts of Tokyo and experience examples of “Cool Japan” that relate to sports. On April 8th they are scheduled to pay courtesy calls to government officials.
It is expected that the youths from the participating countries will deepen their mutual friendship via this program, and additionally, it is anticipated that each of them will become a proactive proponent of the appeal of Japan as a result of understanding Japan’s strengths and Japanese values.
With that, I would be happy to answer any questions if you have any.

Q: We see that Prime Minister Abe met with the South Korean President. Have they reached some agreement? What is your opinion about Sino-Japanese relations? I mean do you expect the Japanese Prime Minister will meet the Chinese President?

Mr. Mizushima: Prime Minister Abe held a so-called tripartite meeting in Hague with President Obama of the United States and President Park of South Korea. It was the first meeting between Prime Minister Abe and President Park of South Korea. Although any bilateral meeting is not planned yet, as our stance is that the door for dialogue is always open, we really expect this would lead to deeper Japan-South Korea relationship.
I understand that your question is about a meeting between Japan and China. Our position is similar. Our position remains the same. The door for dialogue is always open from our side, and we expect the same from the Chinese side. We believe that the Japan-China relationship is one of the most important relationships for Japan and I hope for China as well. We would like to see such an opportunity being realized soon. That is our position. But, at this moment there is no concrete schedule for the meeting.