The Diplomat
The Spain Japan Council Foundation closed 2023 with the last General Board of Trustees Meeting of the year, which served to take stock of the course and set the priorities for 2024, included in the Action Plan. The Meeting was held on December 21 at the new Fujitsu headquarters, inaugurated in mid-2023, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its presence in Spain.
As reported by the Council Foundation in a press release, next year will focus on the consolidation of the Japanese Leaders program, which celebrated its inaugural edition in July 2023, and on the XXIV Spain Japan Forum, whose venue has yet to be confirmed.
The Meeting also served to take stock of the current state of bilateral relations. To do this, it included the interventions of Javier Salido, general director of North America, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Pacific of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Takahiro Nakamae, Japanese ambassador to Spain; and Fidel Sendagorta, Spanish ambassador to Japan.
During his speech, Salido pointed out that Spain’s relations with Japan are framed within the foreign policy of the European Union and highlighted that “what is happening today in Ukraine has clear implications in the Indo-Pacific, in the same way that the balance of power between China and the United States in the Pacific region has implications for Europe.” According to Salido, “if there is a country that is aware of this and that is a close ally of Europe in this scenario, it is Japan.”
For his part, Nakamae stressed that Spain is “a very important leader in the formation of European Union policy” and insisted on the importance of bilateral political dialogue. The ambassador also insisted on the importance of promoting exchanges between societies. In this sense, Iberia has announced this week the resumption, for November 2024, of the direct Madrid-Tokyo flight, which was interrupted due to the pandemic.
Regarding the balance of 2023, the main milestone has been the XXIII Spain Japan Forum, held in Salamanca between November 28 and 30 and the first in Spain since the COVID-19 parenthesis. During the Forum, the tenth Spain Japan Council Foundation Awards were presented, which this year went to the Teatro Real and Fujitsu. The first edition of the Japanese Leaders program was also reviewed, which in July welcomed four professionals related to technological entrepreneurship to Spain.
