The EU and Japan not too long ago held their third Digital Partnership Council in Tokyo to strengthen tech and digital cooperation between the 2 international locations.
Within the face of present world geopolitical uncertainties, the EU and Japan reaffirmed the rising significance of their tech and digital partnership.
The Council was co-chaired by Henna Virkkunen, Government Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Safety and Democracy, alongside Masaaki Taira, Minister for Digital Transformation, Masashi Adachi, State Minister of Inner Affairs and Communications and Shinji Takeuchi, Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Economic system, Commerce and Trade.
On the Council, they recognised the necessity to increase their competitiveness and promote a values-driven strategy to world digital governance.
Constructing on the profitable implementation of their Digital Partnership, they reviewed the developments made for the reason that second Digital Partnership Council in 2024.
Strengthening co-operation in essential digital and tech areas
Total, the Council goals to bolster the financial safety of their international locations by fostering resilience in essential digital applied sciences.
The EU and Japan agreed to additional cooperate on core digital applied sciences resembling synthetic intelligence (AI), 5G and 6G, semiconductors, high-performance computing and quantum know-how.
They may also strengthen their collaboration on knowledge governance and on-line platforms, submarine cables, Arctic connectivity, digital identities, belief companies, and cybersecurity.
A number of the key outcomes from the Council assembly included:
- Semiconductors: Enhancing efforts to make sure semiconductor provide chain resilience by data change and early warning mechanisms.
- Quantum computing and AI: They’ve reiterated their dedication to selling revolutionary, secure, safe and reliable AI, together with the Hiroshima AI course of.
- Digital identities and belief companies: The EU and Japan are working in direction of attaining interoperability and mutual recognition of educational credentials by digital id and belief companies, constructing on the Memorandum of Cooperation.
- Information governance: The companions have began work on establishing a attainable joint working group to facilitate improved knowledge sharing and interoperability of information areas.
- Cybersecurity: Via their sixth EU-Japan Cyber Dialogue, each companions have exchanged data on regulatory developments, notably concerning essential infrastructure safety and product safety.
Implementing the following steps
On 13 Could, Government-Vice-President Virkkunen and Japanese Minister of State for Science and Know-how Coverage Minoru Kiuchi will signal a Letter of Intent on quantum know-how.
This may improve cooperation in digital and tech areas resembling quantum science and know-how, tackling world challenges resembling local weather change, pure disasters, materials science, cybersecurity, and power sustainability.
The fourth Digital Partnership Council is deliberate for 2026, in Brussels.
