European Union - Delegation of the European Commission to Japan

History and Objectives

The First EU-Japan Journalists Conference took place in 1987 and was organised by the Delegation of the Commission of the European Communities in Japan in co-operation, at that time, with the Keizai Koho Centre (Japan Institute for Social and Economic Affairs). The two-day conference, entitled “EC-Japan Relations: Where do we go from here?” was held in Gotenba near Mount Fuji and brought together thirteen Japanese and fifteen European journalists. Speakers at the first conference included Commissioner Willy De Clercq and Parliamentary Vice-Minister Shizuma Kojima. Of the Conference, Commissioner De Clercq said in his keynote speech, “This initiative should be seen as proof of our determination to deepen the dialogue with a most important player in the world economy.”

Itself based on similar conferences organised with the United States, the First EC-Japan Journalists Conference set the standard for an annual privileged forum of free discussion and debate between representatives of the Japanese mass media and their European counterparts.

Held alternately in Japan and Europe, the venue for the Second Journalists Conference (“The European Community and Japan – An Awakening”) was the newly opened premises of the Japanish-Deutsches Zentrum in West Berlin. Commissioner De Clercq returned to the Conference as a keynote speaker and was joined by Tadashi Kuranari, former Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Two Commission Vice-Presidents attended the Third Journalists Conference when it returned to the foot of Mount Fuji at Hakone in 1989. Entitled “The European Community and Japan – In a changing world”, the conference focused on the dramatic changes underway in Russia and Eastern Europe one month before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Vice-President Frans Andriessen, who that year became the first European Commissioner to meet with Soviet Ministers, delivered a speech entitled “The Integration of the European Community, Perestroika and where does Japan fit in?” In his speech he made a prediction for the future face of Europe. “The Soviet Union’s Perestroika,” he said, “and the concomitant political and economic reforms in some of its post-war neighbours and partners are creating an opportunity for the whole of Europe to evolve peacefully into a new society based naturally on the concepts of peace and prosperity by choice.” Andriessen would also address the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Conferences. Commission Vice-President Sir Leon Brittan went on to participate in four further conferences.

The Fifth Conference was held in Osaka in 1991 at the beginning of the city’s EC week. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Nakayama opened the conference by discussing the EC-Japan Declaration signed in The Hague that year. The declaration, which sought to establish a broader relationship through a structured and institutionalised dialogue between the two sides, helped formalise the role the Journalists Conference plays in Europe-Japan Relations. The theme of that years conference was “Globalisation and Regionalisation – The Centre and the Peripheral Regions,” a timely topic as the Uruguay Round loomed large. Many European journalists suggested that at least in the world of media, Marshall McLuhan’s global village was already a reality.

The Sixth EU-Japan Journalists was held in Lisbon, Portugal in 1992. The end of Marxism in Europe prompted Vice-President Frans Andriessen to make the following remark in his speech to the Conference: “The European Community, the United States and Japan, the three prime exponents of the system whose example was a major contributor to the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, must now learn to accommodate themselves to a world which is no longer ideologically split down the middle.”

In the Post-Maastricht era, the conference continued to build on its past successes and attracted leading personalities such as Former Japanese Prime Ministers Toshiki Kaifu and Tsutomu Hata. The Conference celebrated its tenth anniversary in Brussels in 1996. This was the first Conference to be attended by a President of the European Commission when Jacques Santer delivered a speech entitled “New Challenges for the EU, Shared Challenges for the EU and Japan.” In his speech, he said, “The EU-Japan Journalists Conference is an event which contributes significantly to the overall quality of the EU-Japan relationship. Co-operation between those on both sides who enjoy a different point of view, such as businessmen and journalists, is essential to give substance to the ties between Japan and the European Union.”

Two years after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, the reconstruction of Kobe was one of the main themes of the Eleventh Conference held in the city in 1997. The twelfth conference was held in the precincts of Florence’s European University Institute and was addressed by Sir Leon Brittan. The 2000 conference returned to the Kansai region and the ancient capital of Kyoto, which co-hosted the conference with Japan’s modern capital, Tokyo. Similarly modern was the intervention by Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy who addressed the delegates by video conference.

External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten made a more conventional appearance at the Fourteenth Conference held in Dublin in 2001. The subject matter was strictly twenty-first century, however, as delegates discussed subjects related to the information society in a city that has become one of the powerhouses of Europe’s e-economy. The conferences held in Fukuoka and Nagoya in 2004 and 2005, respectively, were extended to include journalists from ASEM partners. They also marked a departure from the tradition of holding the event alternately in Japan and Europe.

In 2007, the conference was held in Hakone and went back to basics by returning to the original format of inviting journalists from Europe and Japan. The theme of the talks was immigration, and whether Europe’s experiences could serve as food for thought for Japan as the latter grapples with an ageing society and falling birthrate.

In January 2008, the conference was held in the city of Kyoto on the theme of “Ageing Society”, with Vladimír Špidla, European Commissioner in charge of Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunity, attending. Participants discussed such aspects as the macroeconomic impact of an ageing society, how pension systems should adapt to demographic change, and work-life balance was important for securing a stable workforce.

In April 2009, the conference was held in the Sea of Japan coast city of Niigata, where journalists converged to discuss the theme of regional policy, amid growing concerns over widening regional disparities. European Commissioner for Regional Policy Danuta Huebner gave the keynote speech, and in the three working sessions, three facets of regional policy -- decentralisation and governance, industrial clusters and culture and tourism -- were discussed in more detail.

The Conference continues to enjoy a well-merited reputation not only as an opportunity for stimulating encounters between journalists and leading figures in the Japanese and European political, business and academic circles, but for deepening mutual understanding and strengthening EU-Japan relations.