Japan, U.S. Business Leaders Call For Diversified Supply Chains

Japanese and US business leaders last week agreed that supply chains for critical products need more diversification among like-minded nations after the coronavirus pandemic laid bare vulnerabilities and business risks, Mainichi Japan reported.

Photo Insert: Nobuyuki Hirano, head of the Japan-US Business Council

After a two-day virtual meeting, the business leaders also called for the US to return to the 11-member Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade framework that China and Taiwan are now hoping to join, as Tokyo and Washington seek to realize a "free and open" Indo-Pacific based on shared values.

"The fact that the business circles of Japan and the US are strongly asking for the US return to the TPP is a major step forward," Nobuyuki Hirano, head of the Japan-US Business Council, said at an online press conference.

Japan is a member of the trade pact that entered into force in 2018 after then US President Donald Trump pulled the US from the deal.

The supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19 have reinforced the importance of global trade and investments, said Hirano, a special advisor to MUFG Bank, one of Japan's three megabanks.

The meeting was chaired by Hirano and Douglas Peterson, president and CEO of S&P Global Inc., who serves as head of the US-Japan Business Council. China, whose pursuit of greater economic influence and technological superiority is raising the alarm, loomed large over the meeting attended by around 60 corporate executives from Japan and the US.

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