From my travels overseas and feedback I've been getting at international conferences, such as the World Economic Forum, Japan's profile is once again growing in the eyes of the international community. The business community is much more upbeat about our economic prospects in light of the Abe government's policies of monetary easing and fiscal stimulus, the first and second of the so-called "three arrows". The global community is now paying very close attention to how these policies unfold, which actually presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to demonstrate that we are capable of charting a new path to positive economic growth. The Abe government's "third arrow" of structural reforms, however, is the most crucial among them if we are to effectively tackle the challenge of achieving economic revitalization. The world is indeed watching to see whether our government can make the choices required and swiftly implement concrete measures that lead to tangible results.

Understanding the relevance of this for charting our path into the future, Japan is taking steps to open up in a spirit of friendly competition with the rest of the world. I recently had the honor of accompanying Prime Minister Abe on missions to Australia and Latin America. In the case of Australia, with which we recently concluded an EPA, the economic relationship between our two countries has taken on a new dimension. Bringing the EPA to fruition is largely the result of collaboration between government and business to deepen our relationships with Australia on a range of different levels, efforts which have also led to creating an enabling environment for the mutual expansion of business in both countries. In the case of Latin America, the mission took us to five countries, where we met with heads of government in an effort to deepen the relationship-building with those countries, while at the same raising Japan's profile in Latin America. The mission solidified new potential for trade, including infrastructure exports from and resource imports to Japan, a development which is also essential to economic growth efforts in the region.

It goes without saying that Japanese companies must become more globalized in order to successfully seize the opportunities that present themselves in a constantly changing global environment, but it is also important that we take pride in our technological advantages and seek to maximize their potential. To that end, we must forge a more solid alliance between government, academia and business in order to stimulate the kind of innovation that will deliver cutting-edge products, services and business models to the global market. Our high expectations for a revitalized Japan depend on much deeper public-private engagement, on several levels. We can achieve so much more if government's growth strategy and private sector vision are effectively combined to produce the right chemistry.