5th Annual Meeting of the EU-Japan Industrialists' Round Table

The EU-Japan Industrialists' Round Table (EJIRT) was one of the forerunners of the EU-Japan Business Round Table.

In 1999, the EJIRT merged with the EU-Japan Business Forum (EJBF) to form the EU-Japan Business Dialogue Round Table. So technically the 1998 meeting of the EU-Japan Industrialists' Round Table was not a meeting of the BRT. The EJIRT and EJBF meetings of 1998 were referred to in a European Commission press release of 09/10/1998.

The 5th Annual Meeting of the EJIRT took place at the Hotel New Otani from 8-10 October 1998. It was co-chaired by Viscount Davignon, Chairman of Société Générale de Belgique and Dr. Sekimoto, Chairman of NEC. Dr. Bangemann, Member of the European Commission, and Mr. Arai, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), took part in the meeting on the last day.

The meeting discussed various issues:

1. The current state of economy and business in Japan and in the EU
2. Deregulation
3. Standards and MRA (Mutual Recognition Agreement)
4. Asian Currency Crisis and Asian Economy (joint session with the EJBF)
5. Corporate Management (joint session with the EJBF)
6. Electronic commerce

Documents available from the meeting

• The history of the EJIRT from 1995 to 1999
• Meeting press releases in English and in Japanese
• Meeting agenda
• List of EJIRT Members from the Japan-side and from the EU-side