Economic Diplomacy

On Wednesday, June 5, for approximately 15 minutes from 3:00 p.m., Prime Minister Shinzo Abe received a courtesy call from EU-Japan Business Round Table (BRT) Co-Chairman Hiromasa Yonekura (Chairman of Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd.) and Acting Co-Chairman Osamu Nagayama (Representative Director, Chairman and CEO of Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.). The summary of the meeting is as follows. From the Government of Japan, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroshige Seko and others were in attendance.

1. At the start of the meeting, BRT Co-Chairman Yonekura explained that, while he was accompanying the Prime Minister on the visit to the Middle East and Turkey, Acting Co-Chairman Nagayama had represented the Japan side during this year’s BRT Annual Meeting. He handed the Prime Minister a set of Joint Recommendations to the Governments of Japan and the EU which was adopted at the Meeting. BRT Co-Chairman Yonekura noted that, as the Japan-EU relationship was entering a new era along with the start of negotiations on the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), a lively discussion was held on the promotion of cooperative relations during the BRT Annual Meeting.
2. Subsequently, Acting Co-Chairman Nagayama stated that there was a more fruitful discussion than ever before thanks to the start of negotiations on the Japan-EU EPA. He explained that in the Joint Recommendations the BRT again called for the early conclusion of the Japan-EU EPA negotiations and expressed its active support for the intergovernmental negotiations as business communities. He also expressed the expectations for the early conclusion of the negotiations under the leadership of Prime Minister Abe.
3. In response, Prime Minister Abe stated that he had heard that there had been a fruitful discussion in the BRT Annual Meeting. He also stated that it is important for both Japan and the EU to incorporate global growth and share their growth with the world and that the Japan-EU EPA is important undertakings to realize them. He noted that the Government of Japan would steadily work toward the early conclusion of the negotiations.