JBCE Takes Part in 26th EU-Japan BRT

JBCE was delighted to take part in the 26th EU-Japan Business Round Table on 12 February 2025.

JBCE President Mikihito Saito made a presentation during a panel on Economic Security, alongside Jean-Eric Paquet (Ambassador of the EU to Japan, Delegation of the EU to Japan), Shige Watanabe (Deputy Director-General / Deputy Assistant Minister (Ambassador), Economic Affairs Bureau, MOFA) and Lasse Hamilton Heidemann (Senior Director for Outreach, DIGITALEUROPE).

He also presented the recommendations of Working Party 1 (Trade Relations; Investment and Regulatory Cooperation; Financial Services; Accounting and Taxation), which JBCE co-chaired with the European Business Council in Japan.

In particular, Working Group 1 recommended that the EU and Japanese authorities should

• Build a common philosophy on competitiveness and economic security.
• Further develop concrete initiatives to enhance competitiveness and economic security based on existing EU-Japan cooperation frameworks.
• Promote collaboration to ensure fair markets (development and application of common criteria for non-price factors in both markets) and to secure critical minerals, to respond in a coordinated manner to dependence on specific regions and geopolitical risks.
• Encourage cooperation in a wider range of industrial policy areas, including Japan’s participation as an Associated Country to Horizon Europe, and strengthen cooperation in specific policy and industrial areas, such as start-up policy and defence industry development measures.
• Establish policy dialogue between EU and Japanese competition authorities on the review of competition policy in the EU, as set out in the Draghi Report, with a view to harmonising policies between the two regions etc.

Other recommendations include a proposal for an ambitious multilateral trade agenda for the next WTO Ministerial Conference as well as further harmonisation of legislations and standards between the EU and Japan.

We would like to thank the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation for the organisation of the BRT and the European Business Council in Japan for the cooperation.

JBCE looks forward to seeing how the recommendations of Working Party 1 and the BRT joint recommendations will be taken into consideration by the European and Japanese authorities and remains committed to further advancing EU-Japan relations.