Japan-EU Initiatives on Investment

Recalling that one of the key aims of the Action Plan is to realise the full potential of two-way flows of direct investment, the EU and Japan will work together, drawing also on input from the EU-Japan Business Dialogue Round Table, to take effective steps in this direction in the coming year.

Welcoming PM Koizumi's call to double the stock of foreign direct investment in Japan over the next five years, the EU will do its utmost to inform its companies about the attractiveness of the Japanese market and its advantages as an investment location, in liaison with the relevant Member State and Japanese organisations and using instruments at its disposal like the Executive Training Programme and Gateway to Japan Programme.

Japan and the EU will take additional steps to raise awareness of their respective markets through EU-Japan cooperation initiatives on cross investment; these will include publicity events, focused promotional activities and the initiation of contacts in Japan and the EU between investment promotion bodies. Japan and the EU will organise seminars and conferences to inform the private sector in particular about additional investment opportunities in Japan and in the enlarged Union. The two sides will also consider how the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation could play an enhanced role in promoting investment-related contacts between EU and Japanese businesses. They will also continue to use the high level Regulatory Reform Dialogue to address issues affecting the local investment and business environment in Japan and the EU.

Japan, in parallel, is also taking important initiatives domestically, for instance strengthening the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) so that it can provide a one-stop-shop service to interested foreign investors, and implementing the five-pillar programmes to promote investment to Japan which were decided by the Japan Investment Council, for example by creating a single point of contact in each ministry related to investment, and promoting deregulation initiatives of various kinds, including in the Special Zones for Structural Reform.

In implementing these measures, Japan and the EU encourage the close involvement of the private sector, in particular the EU-Japan Business Dialogue Round Table.