IEEJ： May 2014

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Special Bulletin
A Japanese Perspective on the International Energy Landscape (169)

April 28, 2014

U.S. President Obama's Japan Visit and Japan-U.S. Energy Cooperation
Ken Koyama, PhD
Chief Economist, Managing Director
The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan
U.S. President Barack Obama visited Japan as a state guest for three days from April 23.
He held a summit meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on April 24 and issued a Japan-U.S. jointstatement on April 25 before leaving for South Korea. He is the first U.S. president to make a statevisit to Japan in 18 years, since then President Bill Clinton’s visit in 1996.
President Obama and Prime Minister Abe discussed various bilateral topics and issued ajoint statement during Obama's Japan visit. Among the topics, Japan-U.S. security cooperation andTrans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations attracted the most global attention. Media reports
based on the joint statement also focused on the two topics. This is because the two topics exert great
influences not only on the two countries but also on the entire world.
On security cooperation, the joint statement received a great deal of attention by calling forenhancing Japan-U.S. cooperative and alliance relations and clarifying U.S. commitments under theJapan-U.S. Security Treaty as extending to all of the territories under the administration of Japan,
including the Senkaku Islands. While President Obama demonstrated considerations to China by
supporting China's peaceful rise, the Japan-U.S. joint statement went further in checking China.
On TPP, both Japan and the United States had difficulties in making concessions due totheir respective domestic conditions and finding a compromise in their negotiations during Obama'sJapan visit. In an unusual development, the difficulties led the two countries to delay the jointstatement release until just before Obama's departure from Japan. Noting that the two countries"have identified a path forward on important bilateral TPP issues," the statement indicated someprogress. But it fell short of announcing any specific agreement. Given that Japan and the United
Sates failed to announce any specific agreement and decided to continue negotiations even after thesummit meeting, it is difficult to assess the bilateral negotiations in Tokyo. Media reports weredivided over the assessment.
But later news reports indicated the two countries' effective agreement on tariff reductions
for Japan's five key farm import categories including beef and pork, and rice. Substantial progressmight have thus been made. Ahead of this autumn's congressional midterm election, President
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Obama might have wanted to announce a specific agreement before leaving Japan. In this sense, hisvisit to Japan might not have been a complete success of full marks. But we can view the twocountries as having made a step forward in TPP negotiations and security cooperation productively
to enhance their alliance and cooperative relations.
The joint statement also covered many other pending Japan-U.S. problems veiled behind
the two key topics as mentioned above. Among them, the statement took up energy cooperation justafter TPP. Particularly, it clarified the importance of energy security in an attention-attracting manner,
stating, "The United States and Japan view energy security as vital to prosperity and stability."
It is also important that Japan and the United States shared and demonstrated to the world
the view that the future U.S. liquefied natural gas export expansion will benefit Japan and otherstrategic partners. Interestingly, in the statement, the United States welcomed "Japan’s new Strategic
Energy Plan" as including "global, peaceful and safe use of nuclear energy and acceleration of theintroduction of renewable energy." This may mean that the United States has applauded Japan as akey U.S. ally for fixing and implementing an energy policy to overcome its vulnerability to energy
problems.
The joint statement also touched on the two countries' efforts and cooperation to tackle theclimate change problem. In order to form an international agreement on greenhouse gas emission
reductions from 2020, "both countries plan to put forward robust post-2020 nationally determined
contributions" at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change in Paris in December 2015, it reads. Japan and the United States are required toenhance and promote clean energy development to address energy security and the global warming
problem. Based on their respective situations, and strengths and weaknesses, they will go ahead withtheir respective efforts and cooperation.
The joint statement apparently indicated that Japan and the United States are prepared toaddress energy security and the global warming problem as not only their own challenges but also as
Asian or global ones, although the statement fell short of clarifying this point. The two countries
may believe that their engagement with Asia is significant, as the center of gravity in the worldenergy market is shifting to Asia where energy demand is expanding sharply. Enhanced energy
cooperation in Asia, particularly East Asia including China, is expected to loom as their keychallenge. As the joint statement is titled "the United States and Japan: Shaping the Future of theAsia-Pacific and beyond," it can be naturally taken as calling for the two countries’ energy
cooperation in Asia.
There is a mountain of common challenges that Japan and the United States should tackle
in the future. To address these challenges, the two countries must further deepen and enhancebilateral cooperation through all available measures including the further development of relations
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between top leaders and the deepening and expansion of cooperation and collaboration at political,
bureaucratic, private, academic and other levels.

Contact: report@tky.ieej.or.jp
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