*Note: This is a provisional translation for reference purposes only.

9:04 to 9:14 a.m.
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Press Conference Room, METI Main Building

Question-and-Answer Session

Visit to the United States

Q: Last week, you visited the United States and met with U.S. and Philippine ministers. Please tell me once again about the results and future measures.

A: From April 9 to 13, I visited Washington, D.C., accompanying the Prime Minister on his official visit to the United States as a state guest, and held discussions with ministers and other officials in order to quickly work out the specifics of the economic initiatives discussed at the Japan-U.S. Summit Meeting.
First, together with Mr. John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the U.S. President, I launched a ministerial policy dialogue and held discussions on implementing policy coordination between the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which represents the U.S. clean energy policy, and Japan’s Green Transformation (GX) Promotion Strategy aiming at developing sustainable supply chains.
With Commerce Secretary Raimondo, I held the Japan-U.S. Commercial and Industrial Partnership (JUCIP) Ministerial Meeting and had specific discussion on measures to further promote Japan-U.S. cooperation on semiconductors and other critical and emerging technologies and on supply chain resilience.
In addition, with Secretary Raimondo and Philippine Trade and Industry Secretary Pascual, I held the first U.S.-Japan-Philippines Commerce and Industry Ministerial Meeting as well as discussions on trilateral economic cooperation, mainly in areas such as infrastructure, supply chain resilience regarding critical minerals, and energy decarbonization.
As there are various pending issues concerning the international situation, we promoted cooperation between Japan and the United States in important areas and expanded cooperation to other like-minded countries through those meetings.
I hope to further strengthen international cooperation based on the results achieved on this visit.

Strategic Energy Plan

Q: There have been media reports that discussion on the Strategic Energy Plan will start in earnest soon. Please tell me about the points to which you would like to devote efforts under the forthcoming revision and about your outlook on the timing of concluding the discussion.

A: Discussion by the advisory committee has not yet started, so at this time, I should refrain from making comments that could create prejudgment one way or another. However, as I expect that the forthcoming Strategic Energy Plan will be a very important plan with a wide-ranging impact, including on the Japanese economy, I would like to hold thorough deliberations.