The EU & Japan together – Leading the way for a more digital and greener future

The 23rd annual meeting of the EU-Japan Business Round Table (or “BRT”) will take place in Brussels and online on Thursday, 4 November and will address key priority topics for EU-Japan cooperation – from the digital transformation of the EU and Japan, and the EU-Japan Green Alliance, to industry, technology, trade and regulatory cooperation. For the first time in the BRT’s history, the meeting will include a special trilateral (EU-Japan-U.S.) session on the potential for trilateral industrial cooperation in green growth.

The annual meeting will also be the venue for an exchange between business leaders and senior representatives of the EU Authorities and Japanese Government, and for the authority participants to review developments over the past year – including the implementation of the EU-Japan EPA, mitigating the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, agreements reached during May’s EU-Japan Summit and  discussions, in Tokyo, at the end of September between Commissioner Breton, Japanese Ministers, officials and industry leaders on the upcoming European Chips Act, the broader EU-Japan digital partnership, and EU-Japan industrial and R&D cooperation.

The BRT’s 72 members, led by Philippe Wahl (Chairman & CEO, Le Groupe La Poste) and Masaki Sakuyama (Senior Advisor, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation) are all senior executives in companies, and other business organisations. They cover a wide range of industries – including conventional manufacturing, services, agri-food, pharmaceuticals, banking, logistics, retail, lighting design, automotive and aerospace. Two thirds of the BRT members represent large companies, and one third represent SMEs or a diverse range of business federations and other organisations.

This year’s meeting will be a half-day meeting with (most) Japan-based participants joining remotely, and (most) Europe-based participants joining the meeting in-person at the Palais d’Egmont in Brussels. The meeting will also finalise and adopt its annual set of recommendations to the EU and Japanese Authorities to help develop trade and investment between the EU and Japan or together in third countries. The outcome of the meeting will be reported in our December newsletter.

The BRT was established in 1999, to discuss issues of common interest; review factors affecting trade, investment and other forms of cooperation; provide an EU-Japan business perspective to both topical and long-term issues of public policy; and identify practical recommendations to the Authorities. The EU-Japan Economic Partnership and Strategic Partnership Agreements, reached in December 2018, have become a springboard for an ever-closer relationship between the EU and Japan with strategic alignment on a broad range of issues, including ensuring a sustainable and long-term recovery, providing a model for other countries. Thus, this year’s BRT annual meeting will address what the EU and Japan are doing together, “Leading the way for a more digital and greener future”.
https://www.eu-japan-brt.eu/