Japan

French presence

There are more than 14,000 French citizens living in Japan, and some 30,000 Japanese residents in France.

Visits

The President of the Republic, Mr Emmanuel Macron, travelled to Japan from 26 to 29 June 2019, for a bilateral visit (26 and 27 June) and for the 14th G20 summit organized in Osaka (28 and 29 June). A new joint roadmap was adopted there, for the years 2019 to 2024. President Macron received the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Shinzo Abe, on 17 October 2018 and 23 April 2019, and the two met on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Biarritz on 24 August 2019. The Crown Prince of Japan visited France from 7 to 14 September 2018.

The previous Minister of Foreign Affairs and new Minister of Defence, Mr Taro Kono, visited France from 12 to 14 July 2018, for the launch of the series of cultural events that Japan organized in France from July 2018 to February 2019, entitled “Japonismes 2018”. He also attended the parade on 14 July, at which Japan was one of the guest of honour countries. A mutual logistics support agreement between France and Japan was signed during this visit.

The Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Mr Jean-Yves Le Drian, visited Japan between 26 and 29 January 2018 for the “2+2” political and military dialogue and the strategic dialogue. The sessions of the two dialogues included all the major international issues: strengthening multilateralism, counter-terrorism, settling regional crises, protecting an international maritime order based on law, combating climate change, international development cooperation, and combating all forms of protectionism.

Ambassadors

French Ambassador in Tokyo: Mr Laurent Pic

Japanese Ambassador in Paris: Mr Junichi Ihara

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

The two countries are developing their long-standing civil nuclear energy partnership. As advanced knowledge economies, France and Japan are deepening their cooperation in the field of innovation.

Our academic and scientific cooperation is organized around 250 agreements concluded between French higher education institutions and research organizations and Japanese partners. Scientific and technological cooperation is central to partnerships with Japan, a country which spends 3.7% of its GDP on research. Bringing French competitiveness centres and Japanese clusters closer together is a priority for both countries.

Almost 75 decentralized cooperation projects now bring together French and Japanese local governments, most often by way of twinning programmes. They address concrete issues of common interest, such as transport, the environment and urban planning.