25th Annual Meeting of the EU-Japan Business Round Table
7 November 2023, Brussels“The EU & Japan – partnering on economic security for sustainable growth”
JOINT RECOMMENDATIONS
The 25th Annual Meeting of the EU-Japan Business Round Table (“BRT”) took place in Brussels, in theBerlaymont, and addressed economic security, standardisation and regulatory harmonisation, the green anddigital transitions, and other issues of common interest. The meeting took place as a hybrid meeting with manymembers and authorities from the EU and Japan joining in-person, and additional participants joining the meetingremotely. The meeting was co-chaired by Nobuhiro Endo, Executive Advisor of NEC Corporation, new BRT coChair, and by Philippe Wahl, Chairman and CEO of La Poste Groupe, who co-chaired his last session.

YEAR-IN-REVIEWAt the BRT’s 24th Annual Meeting in November 2022, NEC Corporation took over the BRT co-chairmanship,
having been the first Japan-side chair of the BRT in 1999. Together with La Poste Groupe as its counterpart, it iscommitted to continue the fruitful cooperation between the Japanese and EU-sides. In 2023, some large
companies and SMEs joined the BRT which has now 91 members1.
Since the last Annual Meeting, the health situation has significantly improved worldwide while the geopoliticalcontext has remained complex with the multiplication of crises becoming the new normal. In particular, Russia’s
aggression of Ukraine has had significant impact on energy prices globally and has further increased global
supply chains tensions. Japan in December 2022 2 and the EU in June 2023 3 , have both formulated policies
regarding economic security. In response to the rapidly increasing importance of addressing economic security
challenges, the G7 included it as an agenda item for the first time. Recognising that economic security is astrategic issue that the BRT should work on in close cooperation, the BRT co-Chairs Joint Statement4 reacting tothe outcome of the 2023 EU-Japan Summit applauded the emphasis the Summit put on that issue and the concrete
initiatives taken to implement the twin green and digital transitions.
In September 2023, the BRT held its third Joint Sherpa Call – bringing together participants from both sides andtheir respective Authorities to share updates on common issues of interest in a less formal format.
The BRT values the EU’s lifting of the remaining import restrictions on Japanese food products linked to the2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. It is important that decisions are based on scientific and technicalevidence as they are effective at dispelling reputational damage and valuable for helping drive the reconstruction.
The BRT calls on the EU and Japanese Authorities to implement fully and without further delays all theprovisions of the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

1

https://www.eu-japan.eu/brt/brt-members
https://www.cas.go.jp/jp/siryou/221216anzenhoshou/nss-e.pdf
3
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3358
4
https://www.eu-japan.eu/sites/eu-japan-brt.eu/files/recommendations/brt_ejs2023_final_both.pdf
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JOINT RECOMMENDATIONS
Complex times which bring new challenges and new opportunities require multifaceted answers. Thus, several
interlinked topics are priorities for the BRT. The themes selected for this year’s BRT Annual Meeting have been
identified through an extensive consultation of the BRT members. The topic of Economic Security appears todayas a priority topic for both regions. The twin Green and Digital transitions remain important pillars for ensuring
the sustainable development of our economies supported by adequate standardisation and enhanced regulatory
harmonisation.
The topic of “ECONOMIC SECURITY” is a growing priority for the BRT which emphasises:•Accelerating the twin transition relies on ensuring secured critical infrastructure in particular technologicalone, and on the resilience of supply chains including energy security. The EU-Japan partnership is essentialfor ensuring economic security and the resilience of supply chains in times of particular turmoil at theinternational level. The BRT welcomes the particular focus put on this matter by July’s EU-Japan Summit,
including the signing of an administrative arrangement between DG GROW and JOGMEC on critical raw
materials supply chains5 and by May’s G7 Hiroshima Summit 2023.

•That finding the right balance between enhancing economic security and maintaining open markets isessential for promoting effective trade relations between the EU and Japan while fostering a more securedworld. The BRT is committed to working hand-in-hand with the EU and Japanese Authorities to enhancecooperation in this field.

On the issue of the “GREEN TRANSITION”, an on-going priority for achieving the objectives set in the ParisAgreement. the BRT:
•Urges the EU and Japanese Authorities to support the efforts of business to identify carbon neutral
technologies and economically feasible alternatives in order to achieve an ambitious goal for a society thatis free of carbon emissions.

•Calls on the EU and Japanese Authorities to guarantee that no actions taken by both authorities will result ina slowdown of corporate investments in R&D and capital or promote protectionist trade practices that hinderinnovation.

•Calls for the operational implementation of the Green Alliance with a particular focus on exchanging knowhow and expertise between both regions to drive the development and investment of clean energies and grid
infrastructure including energy storage and supporting supply chains, especially in the field of wind-powerand clean hydrogen.

•Considers that the greening of the energy matrix and carbon pricing are essential levers for ensuring thecarbon transition and it is important to manage well the social impacts of this green transition.

•

The BRT welcomes the EU Net Zero Industry Act6 as a positive step towards addressing the challenges thatEU industry currently faces in terms of energy sustainability. The BRT believes that the Act can serve as a
useful tool in promoting the adoption of greener practices. The road towards carbon neutrality requires thejoint efforts of all public and private stakeholders. In that context, innovation, R&D and digitalisation are
essential for finding new solutions.

•Carbon pricing is an important tool to achieve the EU and Japan’s objectives of a net-zero emission economy
by 2050. For this measure to be successful, it is important to have the support from the private sectors which
are key players in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The market and regulatory environment should
consider the autonomy, ingenuity, and flexibility of industries needed to bolster efforts towards net-zeroemissions. The BRT calls on the Authorities of Japan and the EU to guide and promote the formation of areliable, common rules-based framework on international organisations and government-led standards tosecure a high degree of integrity and alignment in the carbon credit mechanism and market.

5

https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/news/enhancing-cooperation-japan-critical-raw-materials-supply-chainsthrough-new-administrative-2023-07-06_en6
https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/industry/sustainability/net-zero-industry-act_enPage 2 of 4

On the topic of “DIGITAL”, the BRT believes that the full and effective implementation of the EU-Japan

Digital Partnership launched in 2022 is essential. In particular:•The BRT congratulates the EU and Japanese Authorities for having reached agreement on EU-Japan dataflows7, and welcomes this development. Such an agreement is vital for companies that depend on free dataflows between our two regions. It should cover both personal and non-personal data and be implemented assoon as is practicable. It is, furthermore, essential that such an agreement is future proof.

•To realise cooperation on cross-border flow of data, the BRT welcomes the establishment of the Institutional
Arrangement for Partnership8 (IAP) endorsed by G7 leaders to operationalise DFFT (Data Free Flow withTrust). The BRT believes IAP brings governments and varied stakeholders together for solutions-orientedcooperation. The BRT supports the further development of the appropriate framework for secured andresilient digital infrastructures as well as secured and trustworthy AI. It takes stock of the outcome ofdiscussions at October’s UN Internet Governance Forum in Kyoto9, and at last week’s AI Safety Summit10.

•The BRT expresses support for the G7’s decision to establish the “Hiroshima AI Process” to discuss
generative AI in 2023 and is looking forward to contributing to discussions regarding AI governance;
safeguarding intellectual property rights including copyright; promotion of transparency; responses to foreign
information manipulation, including disinformation; and responsible utilisation of these technologies.
Additionally, international standardisation is of crucial importance to ensure compliance with AI
requirements across countries and regions regardless of whether individual regulatory approaches follow a
hard law or soft law approach. This is also very important with regard to generative AI as generative AI
solutions are entering markets in rapidly increasing numbers and a wide variety of applications. To start with,standardised terminology with regard to generative AI (as well as Foundation Models and Large languageModels) must be developed swiftly.

•The BRT welcomes the full use of opportunities brought by digital transformation with, in particular, furthercooperation on quantum and high-performance computing, bio-medical research, climate modelling, and ‘5G
and beyond 5G/6G’ as priority areas of cooperation. In that context, semi-conductors are crucial hence theneed to enhance measures against supply chain disruption and to promote research cooperation on this issue.

•The BRT reaffirms the importance of submarine cables as the communication infrastructure that covers mostintercontinental communications. The BRT welcomes the “Memorandum of Cooperation on submarine
cables for secure, resilient and sustainable global connectivity”11 signed on 3 July 2023. The BRT highly
values the signing of a “Memorandum of Cooperation on semiconductors”12, which can help ensure morerobust and reliable supply chains of semiconductors. With the cooperation between Japan and the EU, it ishoped that both regions will be able to maintain their technological edge and stay at the forefront of globalinnovation.

On the theme of “STANDARDISATION, REGULATORY HARMONISATION, R&D AND SKILLS”,
the BRT highlights the following:•The BRT calls for a further enhancing of standardisation and regulatory harmonisation in particular in areas
driven by innovation, like food products, bio-economy and pharmaceutics.

•Positioning the EU and Japan as leaders of the twin green and digital transitions relies on fostering R&D andinnovation between our regions. To that end, the BRT hopes that discussions around Japan becoming an
associate country to the Horizon Europe programme will positively evolve in the near future.

•The BRT underlines that enhanced cooperation between the EU and Japan also relies on the mutual exchangeof skills and knowledge which would be particularly fostered by the facilitation of employees’ movement
between the EU and Japan, especially in terms of fiscal simplification.

7

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_23_5378,
https://www.mofa.go.jp/press/release/press4e_003322.html
8
https://www.digital.go.jp/en/dfft-iap-en
9
https://www.intgovforum.org/en/content/igf-202310
https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/ai-safety-summit-202311https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/redirection/document/96835 andhttps://www.meti.go.jp/english/press/2023/0703_002.html
12https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/redirection/document/96834

Page 3 of 4•The BRT is convinced that investing in women’s economic empowerment and skills’ development is one of
the most urgent and effective means to drive progress on gender equality. It calls on both sides to further
continue the efforts on that issue through concrete actions.

WORKING PARTY RECOMMENDATION HIGHLIGHTS
The BRT also endorsed the Recommendations to the Authorities prepared by the BRT’s four Working Parties.
While the full sets of recommendations from Working Parties (WP) are available as separate sets ofrecommendations13, the key, overarching points that each WP would like to highlight include:(WP1) Trade Relations; Investment and Regulatory Cooperation; Financial Services, Accounting and Taxation:•Continue to strive for free trade between the EU and Japan without obstacles.

•Reinforce the negotiating pillars of the WTO.

•Coordinate and harmonise the policies on human rights in the supply chain.

(WP2) Life Sciences & Biotechnology, Healthcare and Well-Being:•

Properly evaluate innovation in pharmaceutical and medical devices through optimal pricing andreimbursement systems so as not to become a barrier to patient access.

•Expedite regulatory harmonisation to ensure fast access to ground-breaking innovations, vaccines, andlow-risk class II medical device products.

•Promote new technologies to achieve sustainable agriculture and food supply through harmonisation ofrules and regulations, data requirements, and risk assessment processes.

(WP3) Digital Innovation & Mobility:•Strengthening EU-Japan Cooperation to realise DFFT through WTO e-commerce negotiation, theestablishment of IAP (Institutional Arrangement for Partnership) at the OECD, and through the EU-JapanDigital Partnership.

•Cooperate on the social Implementation of human-centred AI Technology.

•

Cooperate on the Supply Chain Resilience on semiconductor and critical minerals.

(WP4) Environment & Sustainable Development:•Support the creation of a ‘level playing field’ for manufacturers to be able to publish their energy results
using a common calculation method. This level playing field is more important now with the Carbon
Border Adjustment Mechanism.

•Avoid the pursuit of resource efficiency through exceedingly regulatory approaches that inhibit
innovation and economic growth. Instead promote business support and consumer protection by meansof associated incentives.

•Address with utmost priority the development and implementation of secure, safe, resilient, and highquality city infrastructures that consider life-cycle cost. This is necessary because city design andmanagement have a serious and tremendous impact on creating attractive and ideal residential
circumstances compatible with both societies and people.

IN CONCLUSION13•At a moment of increased instability in different parts of the world, the BRT would like to reiterate theimportance of shared values such as human rights, the rule of law, democracy and fundamental freedoms.
Ensuring a rules-based international order and multilateralism is essential.

•The BRT calls on EU and Japan to strengthen ties with like-minded countries and to operationalise theEU-Japan Connectivity Partnership in order to bring lasting benefits and create sustainable growth inpartner countries.

Via the 2023 annual meeting webpage at https://www.eu-japan.eu/brt/annual-meeting-2023

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