Prime Minister Mark Carney meets with Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo, Japan, in March.Takashi Aoyama/The Associated Press
Kanji Yamanouchi is Japan’s ambassador to Canada. His term concludes on July 11.
“We are here to celebrate the Team Canada approach and to come with business people and sell Canada and make new partnerships,” said Prime Minister Jean Chrétien during his Asian tour in January, 1997. This was a strategic move that recognized the significance of expanding Canada’s economic ties to the Asia-Pacific region in an era when the Cold War had ended and globalization was rapidly progressing.
More than a quarter-century later, the international situation has become incomparably more severe than when the peace dividend of the post-Cold War era was being enjoyed. If we were to list three factors characterizing today’s international situation, they would be: the harsh geopolitical realities exemplified by Ukraine and the Middle East; accelerating global warming and decarbonization; and “deep tech” such as AI, quantum, semiconductors and nano, which are currently and progressively changing the present and future.
Ottawa seeking closer defence ties with Japan as it grows presence in Indo-Pacific
In an unpredictable, uncertain and harsh era, Japan and Canada are deepening new co-operation as reliable partners, built on fundamental values such as freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, as well as strategic interests.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Japan in March was an epoch-making event. After meeting with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the two leaders issued a joint statement and simultaneously announced a “Comprehensive Strategic Roadmap.” This roadmap outlined wide-ranging bilateral co-operation, from politics and security to economy and business; economic, energy and food security; scientific and technological co-operation; and cultural, human and academic exchanges. Currently, both countries, with the full support of their governments and private sectors, are putting that roadmap into action.
Particularly noteworthy is the dispatch of the Team Canada Trade Mission to Japan in June. The trade mission, which began during Mr. Chrétien’s era, has accumulated 30 years of achievements, but this Team Canada mission to the Indo-Pacific region is the largest ever in terms of both quality and quantity. Close to 300 delegates from approximately 175 Canadian companies, industry associations, and organizations visited Japan, met with Japanese political leaders and business leaders, and concluded concrete business deals.
That trade mission, as is traditional, was led by Canada’s Minister of International Trade Maninder Sidhu. Mr. Sidhu and Minister of National Defence David McGuinty co-led defence-specific aspects of the trade mission.
Canadian companies sign more than $1.7-billion in deals during federal trade mission in Japan
Behind this is a new reality where deep tech is no longer merely an extension of high tech but has a significant impact on both national security and international business. This also aligns with Mr. Carney’s “Defence Industrial Strategy” announced in February. Technologies such as deep tech, space, and life science, as well as critical mineral resources, have become strategic assets that simultaneously influence defence capabilities and economic power.
In other words, in the cutting-edge fields of the international economy, the era of price competition for products has ended, and an era of comprehensive competition over technology, human resources, data and supply chains has begun. Many of these state-of-the-art technologies are dual-use; as a result, national and economic security cannot be separated. The key here is technological capability and trustworthiness. In that sense, there is great potential for our mutual benefit.
Japan and Canada have concluded a Security of Information Agreement and a defence Equipment and Technology Transfer Agreement, both of which have already entered into force. The institutional foundation for strengthening Japan-Canada defence co-operation is in place. Both countries are aiming to increase their defence budgets to cope with geopolitical situations. During this trip, Mr. McGuinty also met with Minister of Defense Shinjirō Koizumi and discussed future Japan-Canada co-operation.
We look forward to a new era between Japan and Canada, pioneered by the Team Canada Trade Mission.