FACT SHEET: The U.S.-Japan Competitiveness and Resilience (CoRe) Partnership
The United States and Japan, as the world’s two largest democratic economies, resolve to promote prosperity and to strengthen the rules-based economic order in the Indo-Pacific region and the world. Together, the two countries recognize the progress made under the U.S.-Japan Competitiveness and Resilience (CoRe) Partnership announced in April 2021 and commit to broaden and deepen bilateral economic cooperation including through the Economic Policy Consultative Committee announced in January 2022.
Competitiveness and Innovation
- Digital Economy:
- The United States and Japan launched the Global Digital Connectivity Partnership in May 2021 to further promote secure connectivity and a vibrant global digital economy.
- The United States and Japan promoted an open, free, global, interoperable, reliable, and secure Internet at the 12th U.S.-Japan Policy Cooperation Dialogue on the Internet Economy, and endorsed the Declaration for the Future of the Internet.
- The United States and Japan continued to promote sustainable smart cities, including through the Integrated Urban Services Program Launch Workshop in August 2021 and the APEC conference in September 2021.
- Open Radio Access Networks (Open RAN):
- The United States and Japan strengthened collaboration on 5G supplier diversification and Open RAN, both bilaterally and through the Quad.
- The United States and Japan supported industry-led efforts to promote a diverse and competitive telecommunications marketplace with trusted suppliers through the launch of the Prague Proposals on Telecommunications Supplier Diversity.
- The United States, in collaboration with Japan, will launch in 2022 an Open RAN training academy in Southeast Asia to improve access to skilled workers needed to deploy Open RAN, drive workforce development, and promote supplier diversity.
- Japan funded an R&D lab in Texas to help telecommunications companies to evaluate and verify interoperability of 5G mobile base stations compliant with Open RAN.
- U.S. and Japanese officials and private sector representatives engaged Latin American officials through visits, workshops and seminars to advance secure 5G networks and open and interoperable technologies, including Open RAN.
- Japan held the Beyond 5G International Conference with high-level U.S. representation and aligned visions for the development and deployment of next generation network technologies. Our countries intend to fund new joint research and development projects on 5G and Beyond 5G, including those using Open RAN (including v-RAN) technologies, in addition to projects funded under the Japan-U.S. Network Opportunity (JUNO) program.
- Cybersecurity/Critical Infrastructure Resilience:
- The United States and Japan concurred on the urgent need to take a collective approach to enhancing cybersecurity in an increasingly digital world with sophisticated cyber threats.
- The United States and Japan, together with the EU, will organize the flagship Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Week to provide training in the Indo-Pacific Region.
- The United States plans to provide cybersecurity training resources for the ASEAN-Japan Cybersecurity Capacity Building Centre funded and supported by Japan.
- The United States and Japan commit to improving the defense of our nations’ critical infrastructure by sharing threat information.
- Collaboration in the Indo-Pacific:
- The United States and Japan, together with Australia, are partnering with the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, and Nauru to improve internet connectivity through a new undersea telecommunications cable.
- The United States and Japan, together with Australia, will promote designing certification frameworks for quality infrastructure projects under the Blue Dot Network with support of the OECD, and in alignment with the G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment and the G20 Operational Guidelines for Sustainable Financing.
- The United States and Japan will cooperate on supporting quality infrastructure development in emerging markets and encouraging the U.S. and Japanese private sectors to support infrastructure projects that advance global goals in such key areas as climate, digital economy and sustainable development including through the Memorandum of Cooperation between U.S. Trade and Development Agency and Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
- The United States and Japan, along with Australia and New Zealand, are collaborating on the Papua New Guinea Electrification Partnership (PEP), which supports PNG’s ambitious goal of increasing the electrification rate from 13 percent to 70 percent by 2030.
- Science and Technology Cooperation:
- The United States and Japan held the 16th Japan-U.S. Joint Working-Level Committee (JWLC) Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation in June 2021 to discuss the full range of science and technology cooperation between our countries, such as quantum technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, and climate change technology.
- The United States and Japan signed the Project Arrangement on quantum information science, which will promote research and development on quantum communication, computing, sensors, and materials.
- The United States and Japan intend to conduct joint research and development projects of critical and emerging technologies for respective economic security interests, foreseeing the potential future acquisition and utilization of such technologies, not only between the two countries but also together with other like-minded countries.
- The United States and Japan acknowledged the progress of collaboration on Privacy Enhancing Technologies and welcomed the planned workshop towards future implementation of the technology.
- The United States and Japan seek to accelerate innovation and startup collaboration to enhance competitiveness, possibly through Japan’s concept to establish a “Startup Campus.”
- Civil Space Cooperation:
- The United States and Japan intend to complete the negotiation on the Framework Agreement in 2022 and conclude it in 2023, which will expand bilateral cooperation for decades to come across a wide variety of space exploration, scientific, and research activities.
- The United States and Japan announced that they are committed to a Japanese astronaut opportunity on the Gateway, a human outpost in the lunar vicinity, as part of expanding Artemis collaboration.
- The United States and Japan also announced continued progress on our Artemis collaboration for human and robotic lunar surface missions, including a shared ambition to see a future Japanese astronaut on the lunar surface.
- To advance the return to the lunar surface, the United States and Japan are working to sign an Implementing Arrangement for Gateway cooperation in 2022.
- Japan provided the United States with an asteroid sample collected by Hayabusa2 in November 2021 and the United States intends to provide Japan with a sample from the asteroid Bennu in 2023, as part of ongoing collaboration on a variety of space science missions.
- The United States and Japan are cooperating to use Earth observation data to improve our capability to predict how our climate is changing.
- Cooperation for Creating International Standards:
- The United States and Japan intend to further enhance cooperation in the international standardization organizations through cooperation frameworks such as the new International Standards Cooperation Network.
- The United States and Japan strengthened collaboration on international technical standards development, both bilaterally and through the Quad Critical and Emerging Technology Working Group. The United States and Japan have collaborated in the United Nations fora to develop international guidelines and technical requirements for safe and secured advanced autonomous driving technology. The United States and Japan have collaborated to develop international safety standards for electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicle technologies.
- Enhanced Cooperation on Export Controls:
- The United States and Japan discussed a joint effort to enhance U.S.-Japan cooperation on more effective and agile export controls on critical technologies, including microelectronics and cyber surveillance systems, to address the misuse of critical technologies by malicious actors and inappropriate transfers of emerging technologies through research activities
- The United States and Japan discussed a joint effort to enhance U.S.-Japan cooperation on more effective and agile export controls on critical technologies, including microelectronics and cyber surveillance systems, to address the misuse of critical technologies by malicious actors and inappropriate transfers of emerging technologies through research activities
- Supply Chain Resilience:
- The United States and Japan are working together to advance resilient supply chains for critical commodities in order to minimize supply disruption and inflation concerns, a threat to middle-class prosperity.
- The two countries intend to cooperate with like-minded partners in areas such as:
- Semiconductor manufacturing capacity, diversification, next-generation semiconductor research and development, and responding to supply shortages.
- Information sharing and collaboration on advanced battery supply chains; and
- Cooperation to build stable and resilient supply chains for critical minerals, including midstream materials processing.
- The United States and Japan reaffirmed the importance of respecting human rights in supply chains and reinvigorated our cooperation to enhance predictability and foster an enabling environment for businesses to actively engage in efforts to respect human rights, including through the Economic Policy Consultative Committee.
- The United States and Japan are committed to diversifying and strengthening the resilience of supply chains in the Indo-Pacific region, including through promoting trade facilitation and streamlined customs procedures.
COVID-19 Response, Global Health, and Health Security
- COVID-19 Response:
- Japan has committed to playing a leadership role under the U.S.-launched COVID-19 Global Action Plan under line of effort 1, “Get Shots in Arms” and to contributing to line of effort 6, “Strengthen Global Health Architecture.” The United States has provided more than $19 billion globally in COVID-19 funding for life-saving health and humanitarian assistance, with $580 million announced in December 2021 to support the work of multilateral partners to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Japan has been providing approximately $5 billion in comprehensive support globally since the COVID-19 outbreak, with the recent pledge of up to $500 million that was made as the largest contribution at the COVAX AMC Summit in April 2022.
- Bilaterally and in partnership with COVAX, the United States has shared more than 540 million doses of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine with more than 115 countries and economies.
- Japan has delivered approximately 44 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine donations to 32 countries and regions bilaterally or through the COVAX Facility and more than $160 million of “Last One Mile Support” to 77 countries and regions.
- In April 2021, the United States co-hosted with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the launch of the Investment Opportunity for the COVAX AMC to ensure the world’s poorest countries will get access to COVID-19 vaccines, regardless of their ability to pay. Building upon the initial progress by the United States, Japan hosted the COVAX AMC Summit in June 2021, which resulted in securing $9.6 billion in funding commitments excessing the AMC’s commitment goal.
- Global Health Architecture including Global Health Security:
- At the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit, the United States pledged $150 million over three years, subject to Congressional appropriations, while Japan recently pledged $300 million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations through 2026.
- The United States and Japan acknowledge the importance to further strengthen the global health architecture with a view to achieving universal health coverage (UHC), and to enhance prevention, preparedness and response, including through the pandemic preparedness and global health security fund at the World Bank, supporting the work of the G20 Joint Finance-Health Task Force, and ongoing negotiation on a WHO international instrument.
- The United States and Japan committed to further strengthen the IHR (2005), including through implementation, compliance, and targeted amendments.
- The United States and Japan reaffirmed commitments to support the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis.
- Scientific Cooperation:
- The United States and Japan co-funded joint research projects on the “COVID-19 Research in Non-Medical Sciences,” on “Digital Science for post-COVID-19 Society,” and through the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Medical Science Program, including projects on “Countermeasures for COVID-19 in Medical Research.”
- The United States and Japan supported an industry-led Healthcare Innovation Roundtable to enhance industry support for a pharmaceutical innovation ecosystem.
- Under the Quad Vaccine Partnership, the United States and Japan have tirelessly promoted Quad science and technology cooperation, including on clinical trials, genomic surveillance, and pandemic preparedness joint exercise and the Quad Vaccine Confidence event, contributing to building back better health security.
- Cancer:
- The U.S. National Cancer Institute and the Japanese National Cancer Center extended a Memorandum of Cooperation on research collaboration, and signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in cancer research in May 2022.
- Japan launched a moonshot research and development program on cancer to foster bilateral U.S.-Japan cancer research through Japan’s Cancer Moonshot program. The United States intends to foster research collaboration through the U.S. research programs including the United States Cancer Moonshot.
- Universal Health Coverage:
- The United States and Japan committed, as members of the Group of Friends of UHC to take global leadership on promoting UHC towards the UN High-Level Meeting on UHC to be held in 2023 as well as the target year of achieving the SDGs (2030).
Climate Change, Clean Energy, and Green Growth and Recovery
- Global Subnational Zero Carbon Promotion Initiative:
- During COP 26, Japan and the United States launched the Global Subnational Zero Carbon Promotion Initiative and subsequently co-hosted the Zero Carbon City International Forum to share subnational commitments, policies, and actions to mitigate climate change and adapt its impacts.
- During COP 26, Japan and the United States launched the Global Subnational Zero Carbon Promotion Initiative and subsequently co-hosted the Zero Carbon City International Forum to share subnational commitments, policies, and actions to mitigate climate change and adapt its impacts.
- Sustainable and Climate-Smart Agriculture:
- The United States and Japan have been working together to identify opportunities on sustainable and climate-smart agriculture and intend to conduct research collaborations to mitigate methane emissions generated from rice paddies and livestock from 2022.
- The United States and Japan have been working together to identify opportunities on sustainable and climate-smart agriculture and intend to conduct research collaborations to mitigate methane emissions generated from rice paddies and livestock from 2022.
- Clean Energy Cooperation:
- The Japan-U.S.-Mekong Power Partnership (JUMPP) is providing technical assistance and capacity building to support energy security through regional power trade and renewable integration in the Mekong region.
- Japan and the United States launched the Japan-U.S. Clean Energy Partnership (JUCEP) in April 2021 to support countries in the Indo-Pacific and around the world to accelerate the transition to clean, affordable, and secure energy sources. In cooperation with the Government of Indonesia, Japan and the United States utilized financial, technical and business matchmaking tools to increase interest in renewables investment, and to conduct clean energy capacity building activities, including for Small Modular Reactor nuclear energy.
- Japan and United States established the Clean Energy and Energy Security Initiative (CEESI) to strengthen energy security through stable and sufficient energy supply, including LNG, and accelerate innovation and marketization of clean energy technologies including renewable energy, hydrogen and fuel ammonia, CCUS/Carbon Recycling and nuclear power. CEESI will work toward achieving both global energy security and 2050 net zero goals.
- The United States and Japan held the Carbon Neutral Port (CNP) Workshop, and concurred to further strengthen the collaboration and identified the ports of Los Angeles and Yokohama and Kobe as pilot cases.
- The United States and Japan pursue opportunities to cooperate on fully utilizing existing nuclear power, to include collaboration on extending reactor life and ensuring security of fuel supply.
- The United States and Japan committed to cooperate on advanced nuclear power technologies such as small modular reactors and fast reactors, including supporting their global deployment with capacity building and financial tools, and cooperating to develop resilient supply chains.
- Japan will join the U.S.-led First Movers Coalition as a strategic government partner to accelerate the maturation and deployment of breakthrough clean technologies in hard-to-abate sectors.
- The United States and Japan will strengthen cooperation on methane reductions across the fossil energy, agricultural, and waste sectors to support implementation of the Global Methane Pledge. This includes supporting methane emissions reductions in third countries.
- Transparency for Investors on Climate Risks:
- The United States and Japan will continue to collaborate to address climate-related financial risks and facilitate investors’ ability to evaluate climate-aligned opportunities. This includes by working in international forums to promote best practices on disclosure of climate-related information.
Expanding and Renewing our Partnership
The United States and Japan committed to strengthen further our vibrant people-to-people ties by expanding collaboration and participation in research projects and international exchange programs. Our exchange programs will continue to distribute the benefits of the CoRe Partnership inclusively and equitably, to empower women in our societies. Exchange programs have engaged civil society, and the public and private sectors to encourage women’s role in the business sector, government, and STEM fields.
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