Second Ministerial Meeting of the Japan-EU Digital Partnership Council Held

Overview of the meeting

Japan and the EU reaffirmed the importance of building an ever-closer strategic partnership between the EU and Japan in upholding the free and open international order based on the rule of law and in promoting their shared values and vision for a digital transformation.

They confirmed the progress made since the first ministerial meeting of the council (Monday, July 3, 2023, Tokyo) and announced new deliverables. They also highlighted the importance of stronger stakeholder engagement, including through the EU-Japan Business Round Table and dedicated initiatives of the EU-Japan Center for Industrial Cooperation.

The key points of the statement are as follows:

1. Japan and the EU welcome the launch of the Institutional Arrangement for Partnership (IAP), including the establishment of the DFFT Expert Community at the OECD. They continue to cooperate in the further strengthening of the IAP, including collaboration at the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting (May 2 and 3, 2024). Taking the opportunity of the partnership, Minister Kono and Commissioner Breton signed a memorandum of cooperation on promoting digital identities. Japan and the EU welcomed the ongoing discussion to expand the scope of the EU adequacy decision for Japan to academia and the public sector.
2. Both sides will continue cooperation with a view to promoting interoperability among Common European data spaces and Japan data spaces (including DATA-EX and Ouranos Ecosystem) involving their respective industry associations. This cooperation will also cover standardization in this area.
3. Regarding semiconductors, both sides envisage exploring the possibility of establishing a team of experts covering such fields as sustainable manufacturing, heterogeneous integration^(*1) and leading-edge production processes. They are also preparing an Administrative Arrangement on a Public Support Transparency Mechanism.
4. Both sides cooperate with like-minded countries involved in transoceanic undersea cables, including Arctic connectivity, to join forces with their trusted entities to manufacture, install, operate, and maintain submarine cables.
5. Both sides confirmed the importance of continuous cooperation in high-performance computing (HPC) and identified bilateral cooperation in hybrid quantum-HPC applications and use cases. Concerning quantum computers, both sides decided to explore topics of cooperation for joint projects in basic research in the quantum field.
6. Both sides concurred on continuing to promote the compatibility of their respective product security frameworks for IoT and other products and also concurred on cooperating in strengthening expert cooperation on standard development activities of the frameworks. They also concurred on enhancing collaboration in capacity building, including through the Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Week for the Indo-Pacific Region co-hosted by Japan, the EU, and the United States.
7. Both sides welcome the launch of the call in early 2024 for collaborative research concerning 6G. They also highlighted the value of open, secure, innovative, and resilient networks and the strengthening of cooperation in the development of such networks, including virtualized ones which require cloud services.
8. Both sides welcome the establishment of EU AI Office and Japan’s AI Safety Institute (AISI)^(*2) and are committed to future collaboration between the organizations on the basis of a future administrative arrangement. They are committed to accelerating the outreach of deliverables from the Hiroshima AI Process beyond the G7, including at the forthcoming OECD Ministerial Council Meeting. In addition, they will continue to foster interoperability between AI governance frameworks on the basis of the Hiroshima AI process.
9. Both sides will deepen cooperation in the area of online platform regulation and competition. They will explore establishing a regular information sharing channel at the appropriate level.
10. The third ministerial meeting of the council is scheduled to take place in 2025 in Tokyo.

*Notes:

1. Heterogeneous integration: a manufacturing technique in which different types of semiconductor chips are integrated into a single package
2. AI Safety Institute (AISI): An organization established in the Information-Technology Promotion Agency, Japan (IPA), with the cooperation of the Cabinet Office and other related ministries and agencies to study and promote evaluation methods and standards for AI safety as an effort to realize safe, secure, and reliable AI

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Related Material

• Joint statement (original text)(PDF:209KB)

Related Link

• Japan-EU Digital Partnership Council Held (July 3, 2023)

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Office of International Affairs, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau