Annual Meeting 2026
27th EU-Japan Business Round Table Annual Meeting - 16 April 2026
Brussels, 16 April 2026 - The 27th Annual Meeting of the EU-Japan Business Round Table took place in Brussels and online. It was co-chaired by Dr. Nobuhiro Endo (Executive Advisor, NEC Corporation) and by Jeremy Grossas (Representative Director & President, Merck Biopharma Japan who was standing in for Belén Garijo, Chair of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck and BRT co-Chair). The list of 93 Members at the time of the meeting can be found here.
 |
 |
 |
Articles and social media posts about the meeting can be found on the 2026 annual meeting cuttings webpage.
The key discussion topics
The meeting began with keynote speeches from the Government of Japan - Iwao HORII (State Minister for Foreign Affairs), Toshiro INO (State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry) and Takuo IMAGAWA (Vice-Minister for International Affairs) and a welcome address from Kerstin JORNA (Director-General, DG GROW).
 |
 |
 |
 |
There were three panel discussions. Where presentations are available a copy of the first slide is show, click on it and the full presentation will be available.
Panel 1 - Global Trade
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
Panel 2 - Economic Security
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Panel 3 - Industrial Competitiveness
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
The meeting adopted the BRT's 2026 Working Party Reports and 2026 Joint Recommendations to the EU and Japanese Authorities:
 |
 |
 |
 |
The co-Leaders of the BRT's Defence Task Force presented their report
 |
 |
The 2026 BRT annual meeting concluded with speeches by the Ambassadors of Japan to the EU and of the EU to Japan.
 |
 |
After the annual meeting, BRT participants took part in an EU-Japan High-Level Business Networking Reception hosted by the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation and Japan Machinery Center for Trade & Investment. It brought together 160 participants from the BRT, EU-Japan Bioeconomy Working Group and the EU-Japan Defence Industrial Dialogue. Mr Grossas acted as master of ceremonies for the reception, and State Ministers Horii and Ino spoke as did Ambassador Paquet. Dr Endo proposed the toast.
The agenda for the day and Joint Recommendations communiqué
 |
 |
 |
The BRT's 2026 Recommendations... in English:
|
|
 |
|
|
... in Japanese:
 |
 |
 |
 |
EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation
Joint venture established in 1987 by the European Commission (DG GROW) and the Japanese Government (METI) for promoting all forms of industrial, trade and investment cooperation between the EU and Japan.
