Press Releases

1. On Tuesday, February 10, the second Japan-U.S. Development Dialogue (senior level) was held in Tokyo, Japan. Ambassador Takeshi Osuga, Deputy Director General of the International Cooperation Bureau, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Mr. Koki Hirota, Director General of the Operations Strategy Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and other relevant officials from MOFA and JICA attended the meeting from the Japanese side, while Mr. Kurt Tong, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, the Department of State, and Ms. Patricia Rader, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for Policy, Planning and Learning, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other relevant officials attended from the American side.

2. During the second Development Dialogue, the two sides discussed a broad range of development priorities and challenges on issues such as global health including the Ebola outbreak, women’s and girls’ empowerment, the Post-2015 Development Agenda, disaster risk reduction, as well as opportunities for development assistance cooperation in Asia Pacific, Africa, and other regions, and agreed on promoting further collaboration between Japan and the United States and addressing development challenges in these regions.

3. Concretely, both sides shared views on how to further advance collaboration on health system recovery in Africa and capacity-building on communicable diseases response in Asia as countermeasures against public health crises including the recent Ebola outbreak in Africa.

4. Regarding women’s empowerment, the two sides reaffirmed that empowering women is central to our respective efforts to prevent conflict, build peace and achieve sustainable, people-centered development. Japan and the United States agreed that reversing gender inequality could be among the most transformative goals that we set in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. The two sides further agreed to continue to promote cooperation in this area in Southeast Asia and Africa. They also affirmed their support for new multilateral initiatives that Japan and the United States have initiated to empower women globally, including the “World Assembly for Women in Tokyo (WAW! Tokyo),” which Japan hosts, and the “Equal Futures Partnership.” They also discussed the possibilities of collaboration in business development programs in Ethiopia and business-to-business networking events through the United States’ African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP) and Japan’s Business Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (BWEP).

5. Moreover, both sides discussed collaboration in assistance for the ASEAN Youth Volunteer Program (AYVP) and agreed to cooperate towards successful outcomes of the Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in March, the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in July, and the UN Summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda in September. We discussed the importance of strong approaches to promote “quality” infrastructure projects, so that societies realize maximum benefit. We also discussed the potential and opportunities that exist in the PPP model.

6. Japan and the United States welcomed concrete collaboration projects that were achieved after the first dialogue regarding African women’s entrepreneurship programs, assistance for UN Women “Delhi Safe City Free of Violence Against Women and Girls” project, clearance of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Laos and capacity building of women in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. The two sides shared the view that enhanced development cooperation between the two countries would widen the scope of the bilateral relations and contribute to constructing more multi-faceted and strengthened bilateral relations, and confirmed that both countries would continue to promote further concrete cooperation on development.

7. Both sides look forward to future negotiations, as well as close collaboration for pre-existing and new projects throughout the coming year.