For Vietnam, in October of the same year, the Third Vice-Ministerial meeting between the Ministry of Transport, Vietnam and MLIT was held and confirmed further coordination in the future to discuss hard and soft transport infrastructure development and share information and knowledge per field. For India, in October of the same year, the First Japan-India Senior Transport Officials Meeting to Promote High-Speed Railway Systems was held to confirm concrete bilateral cooperation in the field of high-speed rail.

For Russia, in June of the same year the “Japan-Russia Transport Working Group” was created and the first Senior Transport Officials Meeting was held in Tokyo and further discussions to modernize Russia’s transport infrastructure starting with the Far East among other issues were confirmed.

## (2) International Coordination in the Transport Sector

The International Transport Forum is an international framework for transport ministers from 54 countries along with world-renowned experts and businesspersons to have free and high-level discussions on transport policy every year; past discussions include the climate change problem regarding transport sector and globalization.

At the ministerial meeting held in May 2012, discussions revolved around the theme of “seamless transport”. Our country served as the chair, representing the first time as an Asian country, to put together the Declaration from Ministers on the promotion of making transport seamless for the purpose of promoting economic growth, promoting trade, and improving access to jobs, education, and social training. Japan will continue to actively participate in the forum as a prominent member of Asia.

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## 4 th Japan-China-South Korea Conference on Logistics in Busan, South Korea

The three countries of Japan, China, and South Korea are engaged in an initiative for mutual cooperation to realize a seamless and environmentally friendly logistics system through governmental discussions including the Japan-China-South Korea Ministerial Conference on Logistics which is held every two years since 2006.

In July 2012, the Fourth Japan-China-South Korea Ministerial Conference on Logistics was held in Busan, South Korea. At this conference the following four points of $ ① $ promoting the mutual transit of container chassis, $ ^{Note 1} $ $ ② $ the Northeast Asia logistics information service network, $ ^{Note 2} $ $ ③ $ further promoting the standardization of pallets $ ^{Note 3} $ and other logistics materials, and $ ④ $ strengthening cooperation between Japan, China, and South Korea regarding green logistics were part of the agreement on the direction of cooperation in the field of logistics and a joint statement $ ^{Note 4} $ was announced. In accordance with the conference agreement, Japan and South Korea cooperated on a pilot project allowing domestic laws to be applied for chassis of the other nation to allow for mutual transit.

Also, a seminar for participants from the private sector and research institutions was held along with the conference. At the seminar private sector businesses from Japan, China, and South Korea announced proposals including topics such as the chassis and RORO ships $ ^{Note 5} $ to establish seamless logistics in Northeast Asia and contribute to furthering logistics in Japan, China, and South Korea.