Dialogue and Cooperation on Environmental and Energy Conservation Measures:
A Step towards Improving Chinese-Japanese Relations

Akio Mimura Vice Chairman, Nippon Keidanren Representative Director and President, Nippon Steel Corporation

Not all is well between China and Japan. This is indicated by the result of a recent Cabinet Office survey, where the percentage of Japanese who answered "I do not feel closeness with China" hit record high. The expression "sei-rei kei-netsu" (politically cold but economically hot) has been heard for some time. However, considering the long friendly relations between China and Japan, the extent of the economic interdependence between the two, and the future of their relationship, this is of grave concern.

China is, and will always be, our "neighbor", since neither China nor Japan can move. It is not unusual for daily problems to occur between two neighbors. However, the basic rule should be to recognize the problems and attempt to resolve them through dialogue while holding each other in respect. In order to improve the status quo, what is needed more than anything else for the business sector is to exert even more effort into engaging in dialogue at a private level and to deepen mutual trust.

At present, environmental problems such as atmospheric pollution and the economic structure that requires large-scale energy consumption resulting from rapid economic growth are of deep concern in China. During my visits to China, which have been frequent in recent years, I am reminded of Japan during its own period of high economic growth when it suffered from environmental problems such as atmospheric or water pollution. As I interact with Chinese government officials and members of the steel manufacturing industry, I strongly feel the importance they place, and their extraordinary determination, on resolving environmental and energy conservation issues in order to realize sustainable economic growth.

Japan has largely been able to overcome environmental and energy conservation issues by both public and private sector investing huge amounts of capital and energy throughout the post-war economic development period. I believe that this is the very moment when Japan should actively utilize the high level environmental- and energy conservation-related technology and know-how as well as past experience through constant dialogue and technology transfer to its neighbor, China. I sincerely hope that this kind of steady communication and technology transfer could serve as a step in improving the relationship between China and Japan.