Chairman Kobayashi’s Comments on the U.S.-Japan Summit Meeting

April 19, 2021

Japanese Prime Minister SUGA Yoshihide was the first foreign leader to hold a face-to-face meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden. In addition to building a personal relationship of trust between the two leaders, this meeting was highly significant in renewing the strong ties of the U.S.-Japan Alliance, the cornerstone of Japan’s diplomacy and security, and showing to the world that Japan and the United States intend to work closely to promote peace and prosperity in the international community and realize a free and open Indo-Pacific.

I also welcome the launching of the U.S.-Japan Competitiveness and Resilience (CoRe) Partnership as a new form of cooperation in the U.S.-Japan Alliance. This provides us with a concrete framework for widespread cooperation, covering responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, to R&D in the fields of innovation and leading-edge science and technology.

I am particularly encouraged by progress that has been made with the Japan-U.S. Climate Partnership. We now have a more detailed framework for achieving the targets of the Paris Agreement, developing and deploying clean-energy technologies and supporting decarbonization in the Indo-Pacific region.

In addition to supporting trade policies that contribute to digital trade between the United States and Japan and to the resolution of climate change problems, the JFTC, through the business activity of its member companies, aims to promote the development of 5th-generation (5G) wireless networks and the building of semiconductor and other supply chains.