Europe and Japan have become stakeholders in both regions in a phase of increasing integration and need to collaborate and consult in a number of political and economic areas in advance of decisions and actions, the head of the European team to the annual EU-Japan summit stressed before a mixed audience in Tokyo.

The European Union and Japan held a lightning and relatively low-key summit meeting in Tokyo June 21 which concentrated on broad international political issues but also specific bilateral topics ranging from investment and agriculture to the establishment of a new EU research institute in Japan.

The European delegation was headed by Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, European Commission President Romano Prodi and EU Commissioners Pascal Lamy for trade and Erkki Liikanen for enterprise and information society. They were received by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and other members of the Japanese Cabinet at meetings and a working dinner.

Before the EU-Japan meeting, the Irish and Japanese Prime Ministers also met on a bilateral basis, during which discussions were said to have concentrated on tourism. This bilateral meeting was the latest by Koizumi with European leaders in recent weeks following ones with President Jacques Chirac of France, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain on the margins of the G-8 summit in Sea Island, Georgia in early June. In these previous bilaterals, there were broad exchanges on international issues and specific bilateral topics ranging from football to the planned Year of Germany in Japan in 2005 and the competition for a new generation nuclear facility. Koizumi also invited the French and German leaders to Japan, where Blair had already travelled in July 2003.

At a joint press conference following the formal EU-Japan meeting, Koizumi and the European leaders stressed their engagement to increase their joint efforts to combat international terrorism by planning a meeting of senior officials on the subject as soon as possible. Some attention was also devoted to the differences in policies toward Iraq, that nevertheless converged on the need for UN involvement and a return of sovereignty to Iraq.

The meeting issued a general policy statement that touched on Iraq and the Middle East, the Korean Peninsula, Afghanistan, the Western Balkans, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and UN reform. On economic issues the general declaration ranged over promotion of two-way investment, regulations, joint action on intellectual property rights in Asia, international trade negotiations, climate change and sustainable development. And they promised further progress on their 1991 bilateral action plan and the 2005 Year of People-to-People Exchanges between them.

An additional declaration was specifically devoted to areas of joint consultation, cooperation and actions on disarmament and anti-proliferation. These included weapons of mass destruction, conventional arms and other arms control issues. Without specifically citing any country, the statement indicated their support for international conventions on arms control in areas such as testing, chemical weapons, mines and others which have been rejected by the USA. Also, without referring to specific countries, the two parties indicated that they stood ready to assist countries willing to comply with such international treaties and to dismantle their WMDs or delivery systems, a declaration that could encompass aid to North Korea, which the US has opposed until Pyongyang dismantles its capacity as a pre-condition. But the statement made no reference to weapons in space or ballistic missile defences, which Japan has indicated it wants to develop with the US.

The participants also issued separate more detailed declarations designed to develop their bilateral cooperation on information and communications technologies, joint initiatives against “unacceptable” levels of patent and copyright piracy in Asia, and a continuation of a lengthy list of activities to improve the environment for investment on each side in response to a request by the EU-Japan business community.

On the margins of the official summit, the European visitors also used the occasion to inaugurate the first of two planned EU research institutes in Japan and to attend and address a meeting of the EU-Japan Business Roundtable organised by prominent figures in the corporate community. At these occasions, Commissioners Prodi and Lamy delivered speeches.

The new EU Institute will be a joint undertaking of a consortium of Hitotsubashi University, International Christian University, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and Tsuda College. The Institute was funded with a €1 million grant from the European Commission and an additional €333,000 from the consortium.

The visit took place just a few weeks after the enlargement of the EU and immediately after an EU Summit which reached agreement on a new constitution for the 25-member Union. It also occurred as Japan was displaying signs of an economic recovery following what many had referred to as “the lost decade” of economic stagnation. All these elements became topics of reference during the speeches delivered and during the official discussions. The EU Commission President, for example, remarked that both the EU and Japan were both in a transition toward developing a greater international political presence to match their economic power. And both Europe and East Asia were increasingly integrating into regional processes of mutual interest and benefit.

Prodi referred to the EU enlargement and the operation of the single currency as major issues and benefits for Japan. He noted that many Japanese companies had anticipated the potential of EU enlargement by investing in the new member countries to take advantage of the new markets and to access the enlarged market and lower wages and production costs. He also noted that Japanese investors which have traditionally established themselves in Britain were keenly aware of the differences between the euro single currency zone and the EU members that remained outside. He remarked, for example that these Japanese companies tended to be major users of the EU capital markets to raise funds in euro-dominated debt.

Prodi also underlined additional progress needed in coordination in regulatory matters, already the subject of close consultation and work and such areas tax policy.

And referring to the sensitive issue of competition between Japan and China in economic and investment spheres, he declared that “The rhetoric of economic rivalry with China has been replaced by the dawning reality of complementarity.” And although he acknowledged that “European businessmen’s eyes are perpetually drawn by China’s staggering growth figures…there is no need for European traders to choose between China and Japan. Europe’s best and most competitive companies recognise that Japan is a mature market with lower risk and more than respectable returns. Both China and Japan have their place in a properly thought-out strategy for the Asian market.”

And he cited the need for Europe and Asia to expand cooperation in a number of fields, ranging from the need to assure implementation of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming to aerospace cooperation.

Lamy spoke to students and others invited at Sophia University in Tokyo to explain the importance of the difficult world negotiations on trade and development, especially for the least developed countries of the world and for the critics of globalisation. He explained that Europe had made additional proposals and concessions in the interest of developing countries in agriculture that need to also be followed by advanced countries that subsidise their agriculture to the detriment of poorer regions.

During the official meeting, Lamy and Japanese Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa announced that Japan and the EU intend to take a joint initiative in the hopes of finding a consensus in the World Trade Organisation before the end of July on the means and approach to complete the Doha Round of negotiations. They said they felt a accord could be reached that include three major areas of controversy in export subsidies, internal subsidies and market access.

In 2003, Japan was the EU’s fourth trading partner after the US, China and Switzerland, while the EU was Japan’s third trading partner after the US and China. EU-25 imports from Japan amounted to € 72 billion whereas EU-25 exports to Japan amounted to € 41 billion. A statement by the Eurochambres organisation in Brussels noted that from 1980 to 2002, EU exports to Japan grew by around 10% on average per year.