"2015 will be a good year"
Event Reports
In his keynote speech, Mr. Tadayuki Nagashima, Executive Vice President of the Japanese foreign trade organization JETRO, stated that more than 1500 Japanese enterprises have created work in Germany and similarly big German companies, such as Rheinmetall, were closely cooperating with their Japanese counterparts. “On the global market this will lead to a win-win-situation on both sides”, he added.
Within these lines of thought, Prof. Dr. Yasoyuki Todo, scientist of the Waseda University in Tokyo, spoke in favor of augmenting internationalization, as this would create an accretion of production through the transfer of technologies and competition. ”Many small and medium enterprises in Japan with a lot of potential are not yet active internationally. Because of that, I am calling them ‘sleeping dragons’”, he explained, noting that this is where he would see immense potential for development.
Member of the Bundestag Mark Hauptmann pointed out that the German public’s discussion referring to free trade agreements was skeptically focused on the transatlantic free trade agreement TTIP. “The free trade agreement with Japan is being overshadowed by the TTIP”, added the expert. He continued by stating that despite this the combined volume of trade between Germany and Japan had reached 148 million Euro.
Dr. Volker Treier agreed to the point that Japan's role in global trade was often underestimated. “Actually Japan and Germany have a lot in common”, explained the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the DIHK- International, ”such as mobility, energy efficiency and other sectors of highly developed industrial nations.”
H.E. Takashi Nakane declared that a symposium on Small and Medium Enterprises was already held in Berlin last April on the occasion of Prime Minister Abe’s visit to Germany. At this event the Prime Minister remarked among other items on the importance of cooperation between the small and medium sized companies of our two countries. Prime Minister Abe and Chancellor Merkel also reaffirmed at their meeting their determination to conclude an economic partnership agreement between Japan and the EU. Chancellor Merkel said at the time that, “The year 2015, for example, would be a good year for it.”
Next to working on an agreement with the European Union, Japan was also seeking further free trade agreements with other regions of the world, stated Mr. Nagashima of JETRO. “German and Japanese companies would profit from Japan’s growing connections.” Japan was more than just the third biggest global economy, it is also a hub for innovation in Asia.
Dr. Gerhard Wahlers, Deputy Secretary General of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, empathized the strong economic ties the countries shared. Together, the two nations made out a total of 45 percent of world trade. Furthermore, Dr. Wahlers pointed out that the connection linking the countries was, in fact, beyond pure economic reasons: “We share the values of democracy, peace and a constitutional state.” This formed an important basis, especially in the globalized world, where potent economies such as Europe, Japan or the USA cannot face challenges alone.
Topics
About this series
The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, its educational institutions, centres and foreign offices, offer several thousand events on various subjects each year. We provide up to date and exclusive reports on selected conferences, events and symposia at www.kas.de. In addition to a summary of the contents, you can also find additional material such as pictures, speeches, videos or audio clips.