Report on the 24th EU-Japan BRT

The 24th Annual Meeting of the EU-Japan Business Round Table took place at the Tokyo Kaikan and online on Tuesday, 15 November 2022. The over-arching theme for the discussions was “The EU & Japan – Going Digital, Going Green”.

The first part of the meeting consisted of business-to-business discussions of a wide range of issues including CBAM, sustainable agrifood, the bioeconomy, JBCE & the Japan-EU Digital Partnership, digital twins, innovation & 5G, digital tools for predictive maintenance, equality & diversity, and technological innovation & renewable energy with presentations by BRT members and other organisations.

The second part of the meeting took the form of exchanges between the BRT and senior representatives of the EU and Japanese authorities, with the presentation and adoption of the Recommendations from the BRT’s four Working Parties to the Authorities, a question and answers session, formal speeches by Kenji Yamada (State Minister for Foreign Affairs), Kerstin Jorna (Director-General, DG GROW), Shinichi Nakatani (State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry) Signe Ratso (Acting Director-General, DG RTD), Ayano Kunimitsu (Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications) and Thomas Skordas (Deputy Director-General, DG CNECT). EU Ambassador-Designate Jean-Eric Paquet and Yasushi Masaki (Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary of Japan to the EU) also addressed the meeting.

This was the BRT’s first full-day physical meeting since 2019 (with additional participants joining online). It was co-chaired by Masaki Sakuyama (Senior Corporate Advisor, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation) and Philippe Wahl (Chairman & CEO, Le Groupe La Poste). Nobuhiro Endo (Executive Advisor, NEC Corporation) will succeed Mr. Sakuyama as Chair of the BRT’s Japan-side.

Cover photo from left to Right: Masaki Sakuyama (BRT co-Chair), Shinichi Nakatani (State Minister of Economy, Trade & Industry), Jean-Eric Paquet (Ambassador-Designate), Kenji Yamada (State Minister for Foreign Affairs), Ayano Kunimitsu (Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Internal Affairs & Communications) and Philippe Wahl (BRT co-Chair)

For presentations and photos from the meeting click here.  
For social media coverage such as the one above, and other reports on the meeting click here.