Our morning started off with a brief meeting with Mr. Ogawa, the managing director of the Japanese Studies & Intellectual Exchange department at the Japan Foundation Tokyo headquarters. The Japan Foundation was set up by the Japanese Diet to promote the international dissemination of Japanese culture, language and education. The organization has offices and branches throughout the world, and the their Toronto office (especially Mr. Suzuki, Ms. Lytle and Mr. Yamada) has been instrumental to the success our Canada-Japan trade negotiation program. We sincerely thank you for all your support!
Next, we had the pleasure of listening to former Ambassador Sadaaki Numata give us an overview of the current Canada-Japan trade context, as well as discuss how the current TPP negotiations and other relevant FTAs/EPAs will impact Canada-Japan trade. Ambassador Numata expressed his deep appreciation of the Canadian government’s support and relief efforts during the March 11th disaster, emphasizing the fact that Canada was the only country to have lifted the additional restrictions on food imports from Japan as early as June 23rd. The disaster has inevitably played a significant role in slowing down the advancements of a Canada-Japan EPA/FTA, but both countries have shown strong commitment in the past few months in completing the Joint Study as soon as possible.
Both Mr. Ogawa and Ambassador Numata echoed the idea that Japan is still open for business, and pointed to EPAs and TPPs as important avenues for Japan to re-engage as a global player.