Message from President

Message from president

Greetings from the new President Nikolaus Boltze

In today's international situation, which is becoming more unstable and uncertainty due to various factors, the relationship between Japan and the EU is not only an important economic partner relationship for both sides, but also with strategic partners who share basic values and tackle global challenges together. And its importance is increasing dramatically. In February 2019, the world's largest EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), which accounts for about 40% of world trade, and the EU-Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA), which advocates extensive cooperation under the sharing of basic values, came into force, and EU-Japan relations are on a new level. The EU-Japan relationship was further deployed with the EU-Japan Green Alliance signed in 2021 and the Digital Partnership signed in 2022.

With the dawn of Japan-EU relations in this new era, the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation started its business as an independent corporate organization in Japan's legal system on July 1, 2020, after having operated since 1987. I was entrusted with the baton as the second President by Mr. Masaki Sakuyama, the first President on June 20, 2022.

The year 2022 marks the 35th anniversary of the Centre's foundation. In the joint statement of the Japan-EU Summit held in May 2022, the leaders of both sides expressed their expectation on the role and importance of the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation, which is growing rapidly.

The Centre will continue to incorporate new communication methods in the era of post-Covid 19, while focusing more on mutual human resource development, corporate partnership building, and industry dialogue between Japan and the EU. In this way, the Centre will play a key role in actualisation of the strategic EU-Japan partnership which contributes to solving global challenges through industrial cooperation in the field of green, climate and circular economy, digital economy, and third-party markets, sustainability of global supply chains, security and resilient economies and inclusive societies.

We will continue to strive to further develop these initiatives and to help Japan-EU cooperation.

Thank you for your continued understanding and cooperation.

Nikolaus Boltze
President
EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation