 Good afternoon. Thank you all for coming. I'm Michael Green from CSIS and it's my great pleasure to introduce our speaker today, Ambassador Kensasai, who will give us a bit of a preview of the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Abe of Japan next week, which will be a truly historic visit in many senses, signature agreements on defense guidelines, the real prospect of progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the first address by a Japanese Prime Minister ever of both sessions, of both houses of Congress, a very important moment and pillar for Prime Minister Abe's foreign policy strategy and for President Obama's pivot to Asia. Of course, Ambassador Kensasai can't tell us everything that will happen, but hopefully he'll give us a bit of a hint and more importantly set the context so that we understand what to look for and what's on the mind of Prime Minister Abe and the Japanese government at this important juncture. Kensasai is friends to many people in this room. He is a veteran diplomat in the foreign ministry. He's had all the key jobs, Deputy Director General of Asian Affairs, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, the Economic Affairs Bureau, the Asian Affairs Bureau, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, the top position for diplomat in Japan and now of course since 2012 Japan's Ambassador to the United States. So we'll hear from Ambassador Kensasai and then I'll join him for a brief roundtable and we'll turn it over to you for questions and please join me in welcoming Ambassador Kensasai. Thank you, my good afternoon everyone. I'm very happy to be back at CSIS. I think it is an occupational harder of diplomacy that sometimes we diplomats are either so precise in our language or so general in our language. So we don't always communicate clearly. That's the diplomat's problem. But when I was thinking about I wanted to say to you about the Prime Minister's upcoming visits, I asked myself what they thought that visit would demonstrate. Here is what I got back. I would quote exactly for your interest. The two leaders we show the directions of horizontal and vertical enhancement of bilateral partnership to contribute to the peace and prosperity of the region and the world. Horizontal and vertical enhancement. I wonder why diagonal enhancement was left out. So it's a pretty general prescription I got. But if this trip is successful, as I think it will be, we will definitely see a diagonal enhancement, whatever that is. So let me start on a more basic level. I have high hopes for the Prime Minister's visits, obviously as an ambassador. As you know, it comes at the historic time in our relationship. We have been building up the relationship for many years, but this year marks 70 years of Japan-U.S. relationship. We have gone from reconciliation and to collaboration. Japan and the United States have achieved a miraculous reconciliation of a calming path filled with the pains of war. Recently I spoke to a group of U.S. Marines who had fought at the Iwo Jima. They are all men now, their heads is gray, and their eyes are weak, but I'm sure the memories of long ago are fresh in their minds. And yet they invited me to speak to them, which tells you much about reconciliation. I told them that if you look around the world, you see deep animosity between nations and people and religions that have endured for centuries. You see ingrained distress of different kinds everywhere. Yet Japan and the United States overcame intense hostility to emerge as the most important and reliable allies. First our government became friends and allies, and then our business began to reach a gap. And then our people. Over the last 70 years, the United States and Japan have gone from fighting hand to hand to working shoulder to shoulder. Our two countries formed an alliance that rests upon the foundations of such shared values as liberty, democracy, rule of law, human rights, market economy, as well as more practical, strategic interests. We have developed and shared all these together. And I think it is these values and shared interests that finally brought us together and reconciled the events of our history. And that is what the Prime Minister is coming to celebrate about our friendship and alliance. The use of the word alliance to describe our bilateral relationship is not widely accepted by the Japanese public. It is now widely accepted by Japanese public. This was not necessarily the case in the past. I still remember when I was young, foreign, you know, ministry official. There was debate about the meaning of the alliance. It was still the Cold War. We thought we are part of the West, but there was still debate at the time. Are we part of the West? And there was this alliance. There was even the debate about the meaning of the alliance. Is it economic, political or military? But those days are gone. We have come a long way to believe the values and essential strategic interests for both nations about this alliance. Now, Japan enormously appreciates America's generous assistance for post-war reconstruction and values its leadership in international affairs. And I believe the United States appreciates Japan's post-war development as a peace-living country and dependable partner. This strong relationship is evident in all areas of our national lives. Security, economy, culture, people-to-people exchanges. The Japan-U.S. alliance has become the driving force for peace and stability in the Asia Pacific, as well as the poor economic prosperity and global cooperation. The rebalancing policy of the United States will further promote the cause. And I sometimes think of Montsfield, who was such a wonderful ambassador and a friend of Japan. There are many good ambassadors, but Ambassador Mike Montsfield has left with very warm and friendly word. Just consider how many American and Japanese ambassadors over the years have quoted, he's saying that the U.S.-Japan relationship is the most important relationship banan. I have sometimes wondered why this phrase banan has such appeal and resonance. It could be because it is short or because it is not a phrase you hear a lot. But I hope the reason it has such resonance is because it is so true. If Ambassador Montsfield could see how the Japan-U.S. relationship has progressed in recent years, I think he would feel so good about his belief in it. And to mark these 70 years of cooperation, Prime Minister Abe will alive April 26 and be in the United States for a week. This is the first official visit by Japanese Prime Minister in nine years. There was no official visits for the past nine years. And he follows President Obama's visit as a state guest to Japan in April of last year. To symbolize the important milestone of alliance, Prime Minister Abe will address the joint session of the Congress in April 29 as Mike has just introduced. This will be the first time, the first time. You couldn't believe it. A Japanese Prime Minister will address the joint meeting of the Congress. And in all days, immediately after the war, there were several Japanese Prime Ministers went to the Congress and did a speech. He was either in either house or they did it in a separate way. So for the first time in history, Japanese Prime Minister would deliver speech before the joint meeting of the Congress. To you, this might be your every year's event. But to us, this marks a rare event. That symbolizes some of the things now we are building together in Asia and beyond the Asia Pacific scene. I hope we get some coverage, maybe not quite as much as the Prime Minister Netanyahu got, you know, obviously. He had his own agenda to get attention. But we would like Americans to hear what the Prime Minister Abe has to say. The speech before Congress and the State Dinner, together with a substantive meeting with President Obama, will be the highlights of Washington leg of history. But he would also visit Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Since we are on the eve of Prime Minister's arrival, let me give you a brief overview of how we currently treat these things and some of the subject areas the Prime Minister and the President will discuss. I can't completely predict what they would discuss because they have their own agenda and they have their own in a thinking. But all these things I could say is based upon what I'm talking to talk here so far. So I hope I will be right. But as you know, the values and norms that enable post-war stability and prosperity are now being challenging. There are several challenges, obviously. So during the Prime Minister's visit, we will be discussing a number of these challenges. As you might imagine, they will be discussing the new defense guideline. And the guideline of 1970-1997 will be revised to reflect the current security environment evolving in Asia Pacific and beyond it. I mean, think of how the security and the technological world has changed since then. But then, no smart form, no text, no consumer GPS. So the security environment, even in technological terms, has been seeing tremendous changes these days. But also, no revolutions accelerated by social media at the time. No real globalized threats or so-called raised on threats that doesn't constitute that type. We will also be discussing such threatened issues like space and cyber security, obviously. I don't know what kind of cyber security we are facing. These are all little familiar if you look at the recent trend. As you know, the contributions of self-defense forces working together with United States forces has dramatically increased in recent years. The Prime Minister and the President will take a look at the progress of bilateral security cooperation and make sure that we will be working together more in the future. And we have come a long way, and here I would mention operation enduring freedom, and that was the participation of maritime self-defense force in maritime interdiction operation in the Indian Ocean, reconstruction assistance in Iraqi, anti-piracy operations, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, as well as operation tomodachi in Tohoku, tsunami and earthquake. Now, another thing in the talks will be Japan's security, new security legislation, which reflects what we call proactive contribution to peace. Related to this is our July 1st Cabinet decision on seamless security. That includes the exercise of collective defense. Everyone in a file, I hear the English term she change, which means a transformation. I like the visual aspect of the term. For Japan, this change in our thinking on collective defense is a she change. What kind? It is coming after 70 years of trust, and the legislation will establish a framework for Japan to further collaborate with the United States. So our joint security is on the schedule, and you probably expect that all this new guidelines will be produced soon and announced soon. And on top of all this security agenda, the leaders would address, obviously, the economic agenda. And a major part of that could be how we would jointly work together on TPP, which is obviously a big agenda. As you know, TPP will provide the 21st century order for the prosperity of Asia Pacific. With the force of the number one and number three economic powers behind it, TPP is an attempt to introduce open and transparent rules to the region, which will solidify the prosperity of the area and serve as a growth engine for the world. It is also, of course, important in terms of furthering the credibility of the United States' rebalancing policy. As I understand it, U.S. rebalancing policy is not purely limited political and military. It also includes economic component as a very integral part of that rebalancing. We need strong and prosperous America showing its presence economically, and this is very much strategic in nature. So with vigorous negotiation, we hope for a conclusion soon. The negotiations is undertake now, even this week. I hope that we could rush up and conclude the negotiation as quickly as possible. As with most of the bilateral discussion between France and the upcoming leaders talks, we will cover global corporations, of course. Our partnership extends beyond Asia Pacific to Europe, including how we would address Ukraine issue together, and Middle East, Africa, that would include addressing such global challenges as the ERA, counterterrorism, nuclear non-peripherations, or prevention, that would include those of North Korean threat and Iranian nuclear deals. And also, they might or they would discuss women's empowerment, climate change and environment, space, internet, as well as open and transparent rulemaking. And these covers a lot, but not lastly, but the most important part of this alliance friendship is the expansions of grass-loot exchanges. Trust supported through personal connections, we call Kizuna. We'll continue to be the foundations of a strengthened alliance. We should also broaden the base of people who enjoy these connections, those who serve as part of jet program, teaching English to Japanese school students, or those who served in armed service in Japan, or those young scholars who traveled to Japan as Kakehashi fellows, all great assets, treasure to close ties between our two nations. I was talking a group of young people involved in the Kakehashi program not long ago. I told them the story of Senator Inouye, who served with the old Nisei 142nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II. In a battle, a ballot once hit him right above his heart, but luckily it was stopped by the two silver dollars he had in his pocket. The point I made to them was that Senator Inouye's life was an unequal example of breaching Japanese and American cultures, and that while he had his own dramatic story, each of them would also have their own story too. And those individual stories will continue to father friendship and understanding between our nations. I was also up on the hill recently, meeting with U.S. Japan caucus. Ever since the caucus was launched last year, more Japanese diet members are visiting the United States, and more members of Congress are visiting Japan. So this is a great thing for us to see more people coming and going, and I myself going to the hill more often in recent months, and my staff also go to the hill more often than me and me. And I need to have some office in the hill possibly to stay there. But because our lives are so intertwined, we need to know more about them, and they need to know more about us. So all this is healthy, and the more Japanese who know Americans, and the more Americans who know Japanese, the better off we will be. But let me start bringing this to a conclusion with a thought about the recent cherry blossom festival. At least for Washington, the festival truly is the public face for U.S.-Japan donations. I don't know if you got to any of the events, but every year I am more and more amazed at the range of activities that are offered and how the festival is growing. A million people come and there is no end to the activities. There were all kinds of exhibits around the town and all kinds of concerts, all kinds of lectures, a film festival, a baseball game. I threw a fast pitch ball in the pre-season game, and a street festival with Japanese foods and entertainment. It went on and on. We even had a Japanese tango violinist. I was amazed. I mean, how could a Japanese violinist could play a tango? But it's not just a parade with the princesses on a float anymore. It is the productions of many years of friendship building up. And what occurred to me is that the festival is reflective of how our relationship itself has grown over the years. Every year it gets richer and deeper and broader. And I believe that is what Prime Minister Abe's upcoming visit will demonstrate. So just let me thank you for caring enough about it to be here today, and let me thank CSIS for inviting me to talk about it. Thank you very much. Ambassador, thank you. I'll ask one or two or maybe three questions and I'll turn it over to all of you. Listening to your speech and your recollection that in the 1980s, many Japanese, probably most Japanese, did not like the word alliance. Reminding me of what it was like studying Japan on this side in the 1980s. I stood under George Packer. Good to see you George. And when I was at CICE in those days, public opinion polls showed that more Americans were afraid of Japan's economy than of the Soviet Union's nuclear warheads. And when Americans were asked what countries can be trusted on trade, Japan always came at the bottom of the list. Now when you look at opinion polls, in Japan there's the most robust support for the alliance ever. And Americans ranked Japan the most trustworthy country in the world other than Canada, Britain, and sometimes Germany in polls. And when asked about what countries the U.S. should do a free trade agreement with, Japan's always at the top. So it's quite a remarkable transformation. A lot of people deserve credit, yourself of course. People like Carla Hills and Stanley and Rusty and others in this room. But if it were easy, they would have sent someone else as ambassador. It's not always easy. They would do someone capable. So I want to ask you about some of the tougher or more difficult aspects of this trip that have to be managed. Let me start with TPP. You know on the one hand for the president and prime minister to ignore TPP is impossible. On the other hand, formal completion of an agreement is also impossible because there's the so-called legal scrub and things have to happen. So somewhere in the middle we'll find out where we are on TPP next week. Can you give us some idea of the scenarios we should expect or where things appear to be in discussions on the agreement? Well thank you. I think negotiations are coming to final stage. When it comes to bilateral discussions, as you know the ambassador Mike Froman was in Tokyo and having discussions, negotiations with Minister Amari and also he's negotiating teams of those countries are working hard day and night. As of today, I think the, I would say this, a major progress has been achieved. And gap we had so far have considerably narrowed down. We are fading for the final process. And there are some, some remaining things we need to do. But having said it, I think we have come a long way. We are at the final stage of ending a chapter and try to do it. And I hope that President and Prime Minister could and should welcome all this progress being made and would make joint appearance so that they could say that they are supportive of all this progress and move forward to get the whole agreement together, not only with the United States and Japan, but also the other countries participating to come to the conclusion as early as possible. I think that's the main message I think both leaders could do. And obviously there are the issues like order and agriculture and these two are sensitive to both countries. I think both parties recognize all the sensitivity. But what, as I said it, I think the older gaps are substantively narrowed down. I think we are in the now final pitch. Thanks. A lot of the press commentary about this visit has spun it as being all about China. That the joint session of Congress, the high level attention being paid by the administration, the Prime Minister's completion of defense guidelines and so forth. They're all about the rise of China. As you pointed out, it's really about common values, shared interests in an open Asia-Pacific, but it's also about China. So help us understand if you could that context. What is the thinking in Tokyo right now as the Prime Minister gets ready to head here? No doubt there's a structural tension in Japan-China relations. You had on the one hand a summit between the Prime Minister and President Xi Jinping in November, resumption of military-to-military talks, but you also have some evidence that Chinese maritime forces are increasing their activities and front-page photographs of new land reclamation and military facilities. What's the mood? What's the tone on China coming into this trip to the United States this week and next week? If you look at the relationship between Japan and China over, I would say, a couple of years. I think especially more than two or three years ago, there was rising tensions, especially evolving around the Senkaku issues. And I think the problem is still there, but it doesn't mean that we should be confronted forever. I think and the Prime Minister is visit to Beijing and his meeting with President Xi on the margin of the APIC meeting was a good starting point for us to think what should be the best way to proceed to improve the relationship. And if you look at what's happening recently, all this easing of the tensions, I would say, is obvious. And if you look at the exchange of the dialogue and the flow of the people, not only the Chinese people coming to Japan's defense war, but all the, you know, business and political people are going back horse and they are engaged, more dialogue. And I hope that this would develop to ease the tensions and improve the political atmosphere in which they could work together to address jointly the issues of their mutual concern in the region and beyond. But having said it, as you know now that some of the actions exhibited were taken by Chinese military, whether it is, you know, East China Sea or South China Sea, there are still tensions, obviously. And so I hope that there should be more moderations on the part of the Chinese government so that this wouldn't be a major sampling block to improve the relationship. And I'm not that pessimistic in the short run. And about a longer run, I think we have to address the issues of a longer-term strategic objective of Chinese, you know, military buildup and also all this seemingly creeping expansions in the region. So I think that one need to be discussed. And not as a confronted enemy, but as close partners. And for that, I think a certain point is a discussion between the military and the military. I think that is taking place. As it is taking place between Washington and Beijing and also Tokyo to Beijing these days. So I think these, hopefully, would invite more of the confidence building among the service people so that there wouldn't be any mistake about the intention of the others. All this, if all this would move smoothly, I think that would be a part of the confidence building which would improve the atmosphere that we need to move on. And finally, before I turn to the audience, from my own experience working on the National Security Council staff, I would personally not expect the 70th anniversary of the end of the war and everything that that involves to be a major agenda item in the bilateral summit. Most people think these kinds of things are, but it is going to be, even if it's not a major agenda in the summit, which I think will focus on the issues you've discussed, it is going to be a big topic for the media. It already, and lead up to the trip, is getting a lot of attention. There's anticipation about what the Prime Minister will say and the government will say on the official anniversary in August, and this is one stepping stone towards that big historic date. The American public's view of Japan has actually improved over the last few years, despite a lot of media coverage of this issue. And in Southeast Asia, polls about Japan are well over 90 percent positive. From a kind of real politic perspective, I think the issue that probably is most important for the U.S. government is the relationship with the Republic of Korea, because that bilateral relationship with Japan and then making the most of the trilateral relationship among our three democracies, it has to be a key agenda item for President Obama or any future president looking at the Asia-Pacific region. So I don't know how much the Prime Minister will talk about Korea. This is a U.S.-Japan summit, but can you give us some context on that front as well? What's the thinking? What are you hearing about that set of issues? I think our relationship with al-Lukay matters a lot. Al-Lukay is a very, very important neighbor to us throughout the history. And al-Lukay is friends and ally of the United States. And we are also friends of ally to the United States. And there is always up and down in our history, including some of the tragic periods. But, you know, since we normalize restored the relationship with al-Lukay, I think if you look at all these, what, 50 years, this year marks 50 years anniversary since we restored the diplomatic relations back in 1965, I think there is quite broad exchanges taking place. Fahlai was the director of Korean desk, 1990, 1998. And there was a good reconciliation. And there was a good statement of both governments and although we need to look at the history squarely, let's reconcile, move ahead. But somehow after that, we are still, you know, the pacing with all this, you know, history agenda. And I don't get too much in detail. But let me say this, you know, the prime minister has already made this clear. I mean, that he, his cabinet, other cabinet upholds the, all these positions on the recognition of history outlined by the previous governments, which include, you know, the Murayama and Kona statement. I think that's a very strong and simple, but very strong statement of his positions on this issue. Now people debating which part and that part, but he's saying that he is upholding all this position in its entirety. That's a very clear thing to say. And so I don't have any worry about it. And I think the prime minister would, would respond to all this issue properly. I remember now you were the director of Korean affairs in 1998 when President Kim Dae-joon came and with Prime Minister Obuchi signed us the, the quite historic joint statement where the Prime Minister expressed heartfelt remorse and apology and President Kim Dae-joon welcomed a larger role for Japan. And many of us thought that was the beginning of a new advance. And in fact, it was, but in some ways it seems like we need to rewind and, and get some of those positive dynamics back in the relationship. But I appreciate your answer. Thank you. Let me open it up and briefly identify yourselves and, and then ask a question out of speech. John. Yeah, John Hemingsom a young fellow here at CSIS. I just wondered to what extent do you think the Japan, Australia, US trilateral will be something that will continue after Abe that has real institutional staying power within the, the Japanese foreign policy community. So sure. Well, thank you very much. I think the, our partnership with Australia and it's very important not only in terms of our economic and relationship with Australia, but more so in the changing security environment in the region. And there has been trilateral discussion dialogue going on between United States and Japan and also later both on political and expert level, including foreign policy and defense policy. And, and, and also that is in power with the effort on the way on the part of the US government to redistribute US forces a station in Asia Pacific and that includes decrease, you know, the number of Malin station in Okinawa to Obama and other places. So I think the, all this, you know, the security collaboration now developing among the three will continue to play an important role in trying to secure the regional stability and peace. Russell. Thank you, Mr. Master. I, I share your optimism about the visit, but keeping with Mike's policy of raising tough, tough issues that might come up. Let me talk about a little bit of Okinawa. The go, the prime minister met with the governor on Ag a few days ago and according to press reports, the governor took a very hard line setting Okinawa's history of being imposed upon and recent public opinion polls both in Okinawa and in mainland Japan show strong opposition. So in a democratic country like Japan, how do you overcome this kind of grassroots opposition that stands in a way of a very important national security issue between the U.S. and Japan? Thank you. This Okinawa question evolving around redistributions of American forces in the region which include the decrease of number of Malin station in Okinawa and so that the some of the land will be returned to Okinawa and they could have a better use of land and so forth, reduce the burden. But at the same time, I think the important part of this exercise is to maintain credible deterrence of American forces. And that's how we are working and try to convince and to get the understanding support from not only governor of Okinawa but the people in Okinawa. And of course, it is not easy but we have laid this down taking what more than 14 or 15 years now and there was up and down as you know. But I think we need to stay on the course. And even on some of the issues on which you are not get getting a full majority of the support. I think at the time we would move on. You continue to convince the people there are more understanding. Even on this self collective defense, as you said it, the opinion if you look at the opinion poll not necessarily the majority is still giving green light. There are those people who are still wondering. So I think that will require enormous effort on the part of government and to communicate sufficiently what we are trying to do. Why this and how this will continue to to the safety and security of the country. And that would require some of the process. And the process is important. This Okinawa part is also the process. And this is not easy but I think we continue to be on the course, stay the course. And to be engaged with talking with the governor and the people in Okinawa. And to be clear, unlike, for example, defense guidelines which will in the coming months be put to the diet in the form of legislation or TPP, which will eventually presumably be signed and then put to legislation. There's nothing in the Okinawa agenda or the Futenma replacement facility agenda that requires a decision at this juncture. It's mostly a question of politics. Is that right? Well, yes. So this time and this the Futenma the location issues longstanding issues, as you know. And the current governor is taking different position from the previous government. So from time to time and there is a politics there and different position taken by the leaders of local government. And even by central government sometimes. So there are always up and downs, but at the diplomat at the person who has looked at all these evolutions of a security relationship with the United States. And this is a must. We need to deliver this one. This would serve the purpose of not only Japanese and American security interests in the region, but also eventually this would also serve the purpose of Okinawa development. Let's see. Yes, sir. Frontier question from Taiwan. Thank you. Mr. Ambassador John Zan with CTI TV of Taiwan. Two questions. When the prime minister discusses the defense guidelines with the president, will he be discussing Taiwan or the Taiwan Strait? Second question. When the prime minister addresses the joint session of Congress, how will he address some of the touchy historical issues? Something that Korea and China might be listening to as attentively as the people on Capitol Hill. Thank you. Well, on this guideline, would the prime minister discuss Taiwan in this context? I'm not quite sure about it. We know that Taiwan is a very important regional power and force. And we have a very close and basically economic partnership with Taiwan. And we have developed over the years good relationship with Taiwan. But when a leader would discuss on this guideline, it's not really pinpointing a specific country or region, to be honest, at this juncture. And I think it's a more generic kind of discussion taking place. And I would presume that they would basically welcome all this work. We have been developing together over the year about this revised guideline and continue to give a pressing support to this exercise. And I don't think that it's necessarily for us to get into specific operational issues how all this new guideline will be applied. And we don't have to do it at this moment. And about this, the prime minister's address before the joint meeting of the Congress would that cover a more sensitive relationship with Alokian and even China. I don't know, to be honest. You know, I haven't seen all this, you know, speech writers draft at this moment. I think he's working hard. And it's, I think, up until last moment, I think prime minister is screaming and doing that. But I would say this speech is basically evolving around Japan-US relationship. How we have come long way, 70 years. And how we build up our relationship. As I said, we fought a war. And we reconciled and developed a partnership. And now we have friends in Laohai. What are the challenges where we are heading forward? So I would imagine that, you know, even in prime minister to talk with the president, they would talk about the vision where we are heading for. What would be the world we'd like to pursue? Especially Asia Pacific. That has to be the area for peace. What would be the best thing for the leaders need to recognize and try to build together? I think that's the main agenda. Of course, I think it doesn't mean that we don't think the auditions with China and our okay are not important. It is. And they are critically important partners to us. So without prejudice to what prime minister would say, basically his speech in the Congress is not necessarily the place to address the questions evolving around the other country. It's more of our own partnership. If you come to the United States, he needs to talk about the United States and us, not necessarily focusing on the other country, to be honest. But it doesn't mean that we don't care about it. These are the very important countries. He goes to our okay and China, he would address properly and sufficiently in our partnership. Stanley? Stanley Roth-Boeing. One of the more difficult issues for U.S.-Asia policy recently, maybe even a bit of a debacle, has been the Chinese proposal for the Asia Investment Infrastructure Bank and where we have seen many U.S. allies in Europe and elsewhere decide to join the bank on Japan estate with the United States. But now there's a question with 50 plus members already in the bank. What to do? Do you think this might be a discussion of some type of face-saving mechanism or formula, whereas Japan and the U.S. might find a way to join the bank at some point in the future? Well, thank you very much. I don't think you mean that. Deputy Prime Minister also was in town, I think, worked last weekend. I had asked more or less a similar question to him. He was in June 20 and others. But in spite of all this interest among the public and including press on the issues, this issue was not necessarily the major agenda for June 20. But we know your interest and others' interest. So let me say this. I think basically all these Chinese government proposals to create new infrastructure, supporting banks. If you look at the demand for infrastructure building in Asia, and I think it is obvious there will be more demand. As we believe the future of economic growth in the region, there should be more infrastructure building, obviously. And there has been already discussion taking place long before Chinese proposal about this importance of infrastructure building. For example, within ASEAN, there is a lot of talks about ASEAN connectivities, how you would do this and how you would support bilaterally, whether from World Bank, Asia Development Bank or bilaterally. So I think there is a natural for countries like China which is making a big economic progress, have more currency reserve, more sort of financial capacity to support, try to do these things. But I think at this point, you know, the reason why in Japan and also the United States, I'm not in a position to speak on behalf of the U.S. government, but I think Japan and the United States are on the same page on these issues. I think the basic, you know, the topics is this one, how would this bank work? This is basically the issue of governance, you know, and would this new bank function in the same way as the World Bank or ADB or other international lending institutions are working in terms of how all these transparencies, liability issues, this is a making mechanism. If this should be taken as a Chinese government doing on its own without much, you know, attention to the others, then I think this might not be necessarily free welcome. But I think the Europeans, many of the European countries have decided to participate in these talks to on the memorandum understand. This memorandum understanding is basically try to agree on the basic framework of the bank and they believe that they could participate in these talks to make sure that all these international standards, the disciplines will be built and introduced. That's what we are waiting for and I think that's what our government and the US government also tell advise in Chinese government this should be the way. So I think the the reason why at this moment we are a bit cautious is that we really don't know how this Chinese government will come back with all this advice that we are giving and whether this bank will be good enough is different from the issue of whether we'll be participating or not. I think there is often the case confusion and I think at this moment we think we want to see that all these banks should be working properly. Then you have to think what you would do at this moment since we really are not sure at this moment we are not really making any potitions. We are still cautious about the possibility of participation at this moment. Let me see we have do you have time for perhaps one more question? Yeah. Kevin briefly because we're at our hour. Hi Kevin Mair for NMB Consulting for the State Department. Mr. Ambassador you're still a young man. If I could ask you to look 20 years from now say 2035 if you were looking back at this visit by the Prime Minister what do you think or what would you hope would be the thing most remembered about the Prime Minister's visit to Washington this time? The Ambassador's speech at CSIS of course. The one thing. What is the last part do you ask? If you're 20 years from now looking back on this visit what do you hope would be the thing most remembered historically about the Prime Minister's visit? Oh I see. Yeah I think there are three things. One is I think this visit marks the historic moment that Japan and the United States solidify strengthen the alliance dramatically for the next generations for the generation to come in for the Asia Pacific that is symbolized by one this new security alignment including the Japanese the new security legislations and new guidelines which will be a milestone document for the alliance. Number two is the all this hope I hope that this will be the case the conclusions of this TPP and I don't think that the all the negotiation will be concluded I'm talking about the whole you know exercise you know done by the all the participating country not just between US and Japan but they these negotiations would continue to go on beyond the Prime Minister's visit but I hope that the Prime Minister's visit would would signal to both US Congress and the other part of the region that the United States Japan are the major driving force to do this and we are coming to cross it and we could deliberate and I think Prime Minister would hopefully appeal to the Congress we need to get your support on this historic and strategic agenda for both for the United States and Japan and also for the entire region I think these two are very much remembered when I when I'm what more than eight years old or whatever and I hope that will be the case Excellent Ambassador thank you he'll be at Blair House two nights I think with a joint session and Gala's at the Smithsonian so that the traffic's not going to be great but I think everybody in this room is willing to endure that for the US Japan alliance and wish you the best of luck it's a very exciting visit coming up thank you thank you very much thank you