 Order. The Parliament is still in session, so could I ask guests leaving the gallery to do so quietly please? The next item of business today is the member's business debate on motion number 1-0003, in the name of Alex Johnston on Aberdeen's engagement strategy with Japan. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I'd be grateful for those members who wish to speak in the debate. Could press the request to speak buttons now. I call on Alex Johnston to open the debate. Seven minutes please Mr Johnston. Dwylliannol, dweud, dyfodol, ac rwy'n gwych i ddim ni'n wedi'i gweithio'r dweud o'r dyfodol i'r parlym ysgolion ysgolion. A dweud o'r gwaith, rwy'n gweithio'r gyfansol gennwys Gwylfaenol, Mr Hajime Kitahoka, sy'n brosiectu'r cyffredin gael ei gaeli'r ddeithasol. Rwyf, rwyf, cymdeithiwn Rost Thompson yng Nghylch Cymru Lordeens, rwyf yn cyflwyno yng Nghylch o'r strategiaeth ffordd o'r ffordd o'r Cymru i Ddod yn Aberdeen i Japan, oedd rwyf yn fawr i ddim yn ddim yn anonod. Rwy'n gwaith iddyn nhw cysylltu i Llywodraeth yn Sgoltwyng, ymdDOd o'r cyd-dwylliant o ddod yn gweithio i ddod rwyf yn ddod ar y actors, the substantial coverage by Japanese media of the referendum. Only last week, I and other MSPs were interviewed on our views on the referendum by Hokkyado Shimbom at Japanese Newspaper, which enjoys a circulation of some two million copies. Fy enw, Amesifatul Gwladau a Gwladau i ddod o'r ffordd, oedd y cyfrifol iawn ar gyfer y Cymru, yn gyflawni gael i ddod o'r 19 eich cyfrifol i dda i dda i ddod o'r ffordd yn cyfrifol iawn i ddod o'r prifysgol gweld o'r cyfrifol iawn sy'n cyfrifol iawn ar gyfer y cyfrifol iawn. Thomas Blake Glover, a man who hailed from the north-east of Scotland and whose name has been instantly recognised by every Japanese person I have met, played a pivotal role in this. Among his many achievements in Japan were supplying Japan with its first modern ships, which were built in Aberdeen. He also imported into Japan the first dry dock, which was also constructed in Aberdeen and shipped to Nagasaki. Ultimately, that dry dock would play a crucial role in the development of Mitsubishi and he also assisted in a plan to smuggle five young samurai out of Japan to be educated in the west. Those young men, now famously known as the Choshu Five, would all at some point stay in Aberdeen and, on returning to their native country, played pivotal roles in the development of modern Japan. More recently, Aberdeen signed a citizens friendship city affiliation with Nagasaki, and the council has also joined the cross-party group in Japan, which now meets here in the Scottish Parliament. Other initiatives include the Thomas Blake Glover Aberdeen asset scholarship, and one Aberdeen resident, Mr Ronnie Watt, has been honoured by the Emperor of Japan and Government with the Order of the Rising Sun. Each year, Mr Watt's organisation presents recipients who have served or excelled in their relevant field with either the Scottish Samurai Award or the Scottish Samurai Shogun Award. Against the backdrop of this extraordinary history between Aberdeen and Japan, especially the city of Nagasaki, the modern arguments for Aberdeen to pursue a never closer and mutually beneficial relationship with Japan are overwhelming. Across the UK, there are 921 Japanese companies with 140,000 employees. 65 of those companies operate in Scotland, supporting the employment of some 5,000 people directly. Many will be surprised to learn that, in Asia, it is Japan that is the highest number of business links with the UK. In 2012, Japanese companies invested £33.4 billion in the UK, placing us only second to the Netherlands within the EU. Japan's investment flow to the UK was up by around 15 per cent in 2013, which exceeded Japan's investment flow to China. However, that is not a one-way street. Many opportunities exist for Scotland and the UK companies to export to Japan. To give just one example, between January and June 2013 alone, some £45 million worth of food and non-alcoholic drinks were exported from the UK to Japan. I believe that the desire to deliver this strategy has come at just the right time. The Japanese programme for growth, often referred to as abenomics, has shown results. The real GDP of Japan is up, average earnings are up and unemployment is down. There are also an estimated £1.9 million high net worth individuals living in Japan. Aberdeen is also well placed to deliver a high-quality experience to Japanese visitors. In a survey by Visit Britain, three of the top sought-after activities in Britain were positioned here in Scotland, with a whisky tour in a Scottish distillery coming eighth on the list of 20. Members may be interested to know that a picture of a Scottish castle came second on a list of iconic images for Japanese people, easily beating other images such as the London Eye. I sincerely hope that this strategy also results in a greater number of visitors arriving from Japan to share our rich culture and history. I know that they will certainly be warmly welcomed in Aberdeen. Turning to the strategy itself, I believe that one of the key strengths of this proposal is the ability of Aberdeen to capitalise on its role as the energy capital of Europe and forge new and exciting partnerships that will build on our exciting and existing strong relationship. Aberdeen stands ready to bring its decades of experience and offshore energy to work closely with Japan in exploiting its own energy resources. Perhaps even more importantly, both Scotland and Japan are working tirelessly to increase the amount of energy harness from renewable sources such as offshore wind and photovoltaics. Once again, Aberdeen has much to offer, giving huge potential for co-operation in research and development, trade and, of course, the reduction in carbon emissions that we all seek. Vital, though it is, the strategy proposed by Aberdeen City Council is about so much more than trade. It offers the opportunity for greater engagement, co-operation and understanding on many levels. It also seeks to deliver closer ties through education, and with two world-class universities, Aberdeen is ideally placed for academic collaboration. I sincerely hope that local schools will also be able to play a role, perhaps by linking with their counterparts in Japan. Turning to sport, I was delighted to play a part in encouraging the Japanese cricket team to visit Scotland last year. The tour was hugely successful and I am assured that the team, having received such a warm welcome here in Scotland, is very keen to return. I am also aware that the Scottish players thoroughly enjoyed meeting their Japanese counterparts socially, and I hope that the success can be replicated across other sports, setting the example to promote friendship and understanding between the Scots and the Japanese. Presiding Officer, I, along with many in Japan, wholeheartedly welcome the proposal by Aberdeen City Council to formalise its engagement with Japan. It promises a host of exciting opportunities, which can only be of great benefit to both sides, and I very much look forward to seeing it develop and ultimately playing a hugely important role in promoting great friendship and understanding, not just between Aberdeen and Japan, but Scotland and Japan. In moving the motion in my name, I would like to conclude by saying, Gicho arigato gozaimas. Many thanks. I now call Mark McDonald to be followed by Lewis McDonald. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and can I congratulate Alex Johnson on securing the debate today? For those of us in this chamber who only ever hear about the times when the folk in Aberdeen City Council are disagreeing with each other and occasionally with ourselves, it is good to see that this was an approach that could be taken unanimously across political parties. As Alex Johnson highlighted, there is a long relationship that exists between Scotland and Japan, in particular the city of Aberdeen and the north-east of Scotland and Japan, and I think that it is only right that we seek modern links to build on those historic ties. Alex Johnson mentioned the scholarship that Aberdeen asset management introduced to Thomas Blake-Gilver scholarship, which provides a grant of £5,000 for an individual to travel to Japan for intensive study of Japanese language at the international Christian University summer programme. The winning student learns all aspects of Japanese language and culture from Japanese writing systems through to the traditional Japanese tea ceremony, and that builds on Aberdeen asset management having had business-based in Japan since 2006. One of the things that also needs to be looked at as well are cultural opportunities and cultural links. In September 2011, the Scottish Samurai Festival was held in the bridge of Don, which is where Thomas Blake-Gilver lived before he moved to Nagasaki. If my colleague Stuart Stevenson was here, he would be reminding us all that Gilver was, in fact, born in Fraserborough in his constituency. Since he is not here, I will talk about my constituency if that is all right. The event of the Scottish Samurai Festival was sponsored by Mitsubishi along with a range of local and national companies, including the council, the mains of Scotland in the bridge of Don and also Scottish Development International. That was about a celebration of the links between the community of the bridge of Don, the city of Aberdeen and Japan. It involved a fantastic parade where theatre modu, a social enterprise, worked with classes from Old Macaron bridge of Don academies and youth and community groups and gave them lessons in stilt walking, samurai swordsmanship and fire breathing. There are some fantastic pictures on the Old Macaron academy website of people who are testing out fire breathing with the proviso that it is not to be tried at home. What we also see is that link continuing in culture and sport, as Alex Johnston mentioned. Japan Day 2014 is taking place on Sunday 8 June, this Sunday, in Aberdeen, with the 10th anniversary, the Kendo Thistle Cup. A free admission event will offer visitors the chance to practice calligraphy, play traditional Japanese games, learn about bonsai, try on a kimono, learn about Japanese flower arrangement and watch and sample traditional Japanese food being made and then participate in the aforementioned tea ceremony. That is being held at the International School of Aberdeen on Sunday 8 June, so I think that if folk can make it along to that it would certainly be worth their while doing so. Alex Johnston also mentioned the trade and energy links and I think that that is very important and obviously there has been a lot of work being going on in that regard. John Swinney for example visited Japan in 2012 and returned again a year later to meet with renewables, life sciences, textiles, food and drink businesses in Kyoto and Tokyo. Mitsubishi itself has invested over £100 million into Scottish renewables in 2010 and also has a research and development facility in Livingston in which Fergus Ewing has helped to open. There are a range of links that are already there and any formalisation of links that can be achieved is to be welcomed and I am sure that the minister will be paying close attention to that strategy and looking at ways that some of the themes from that strategy can be replicated at a national level in terms of the links between the Scottish Government and Japan as well. I am pleased to have been able to contribute to this debate to shed a little bit of light on some of the links that do exist because I think that sometimes we do not make enough of those links that exist between not just Scotland and Japan but also Aberdeen and Japan, so more power to the arm of those who are seeking to do so now. I too congratulate Aberdeen City Council and its partners in Japan for their ever closer engagement and I congratulate Alex Johnson on bringing this issue for debate here today. As he said, Thomas Blake Lover represents the enterprise spirit of North East Scotland both in his own time and in ours. The Nagasaki shipyard that Glover founded and Mitsubishi with which he worked for its first 40 years symbolised Japan's success in adopting and taking forward modern technologies both then and now. It is to the credit of both the City Council and Mitsubishi that Glover's home in Aberdeen is to be upgraded and promoted for visitors from both Scotland and Japan so that all those with an interest in the story of the Scottish Samurais can see for themselves the place where he grew up. That will certainly be money well spent and visitors from Scotland will no doubt also enjoy visiting Glover's mansion in Tokyo said to be the inspiration for Madame Butterfly and many will also enjoy the product of the current brewery which he also helped to found. History, culture and tourism all offer common ground but there are also links as has been said between our industrial economies so important to both Aberdeen and Japan. Offshore oil and gas have made Aberdeen home to people from across the globe and one of the two major centres of the global oil and gas industry. The European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre in Aberdeen Bay offers the prospect of putting the city at the centre of offshore renewable energy too and I'm delighted that Aberdeen is now planning to stage its own renewable energy exhibition on conference in future years. Japan with its traditions of industrial innovation going back to the time of Thomas Glover is one of the leading lights in developing new technologies for both the oil and gas industry and renewables making it a natural fit for trade and co-operation with the energy capital of Europe. Aberdeen city council leaders have already visited Japan this year to showcase the best that the city has to offer and to meet with potential partners to discuss among other things the opportunities for co-operation in the development of hydrogen technology. Councillor Barney Crockett, convener of enterprise planning and infrastructure and then leader of the council, met with Mr Lakeo Fukui who has been a key leader in the Mitsubishi corporation and has had an absolutely pivotal role in building up the relationship between Aberdeen and Japan in recent years. Mr Fukui is a global Scott and also works closely with UK trade and investment in promoting links between our countries. I would take this opportunity to pay tribute to his engagement with Aberdeen and also to pay tribute to the role played by Barney Crockett in promoting Aberdeen as a city keen to do business both in Japan and elsewhere around the world. Because Aberdeen's global vision is broad indeed, in the last two years city councillors have agreed a trade link with South Korea based on renewable energy technology and marine engineering, while key business people from China have also been welcomed to the city in recent months. The growing role of oil companies from those countries in the North Sea is well known. It is right that Scotland's city regions should develop their own strategies in this way, working to their individual strengths rather than simply following a one-size-fits-all national strategy. Aberdeen has led the way on a cross-party basis, and I am delighted that elected representatives of all the groups that are involved in the current administration of the city are with us here in the gallery today. I congratulate them and all those involved with their efforts to promote and increase Aberdeen's global reach, and I commend the city's innovative engagement with Japan as an example for the rest of Scotland to follow. Many thanks. I now call Cameron Buchanan to be followed by Richard De Baker. Thank you. Can I add my congratulations to Aberdeen City Council for their formal engagement strategy and to congratulate the consul general, Kitalka Sann, on appearing here and coming here? My own experience is not particularly with the north-east or with Aberdeen, although I have led two trade missions to Japan in my former role, both with the SCDI and the United Kingdom Fashion and Textile Corporation. The first one that I led was with a lot of people from Aberdeen, including the Textile Federation Cromby, which is sadly not there any longer. I have known Japan very well for a long time, and I have been about 15 times to Japan. I have always been impressed, particularly by their way of doing business, their safe country and, indeed, their great humour. As an illustration of their great humour, I have a particular one. I led a trade mission when I was in the Hilton hotel in Osaka and I was leading a trade mission, and next door to me was a company selling golf clubs. They were selling golf clubs and they had a special golf club that, when you swung it, it made a noise. If you swung it correctly, it made a noise. If you didn't swing it correctly, it made no noise at all, so a guy next to me, a fellow next to me, who was actually Anglo-Japanese, ratched the thing up to number four, and I couldn't get the blooming thing to work at all. I gave it an almighty swing, it left my hands, went up, hit the chandelier and came down again, smashed the chandelier. The Japanese then walked around with some umbrellas, carrying the umbrellas, and when I was presented with a bill for the chandelier, they said, Mr Buchanan, for your hole in one. So they've got a lot of humour. I was also going to say that, when they talked about the Japanese castles and, sorry, Scottish castles and Japan, the way they can recognise things, there have been many, many weddings in Elendon and Castle, and that was the actual castle they've had there because they come there, they love dressing up in the kilts, they have a traditional Japanese wedding in Japan, and they come over to Scotland and have another wedding. I've been to one of them. I also felt that their education has been superb. We've had a number of exchanges. I've done a number of exchanges, particularly in textiles, having Japanese people come and work in our, when I was in the textile industry, come and work in our, I can't say it's a factory, warehouse really, and try and get the exchanges going. Their way of working is very different. They don't leave until the boss has left, they never leave. Mr Buchanan, I have to say to you that this is a very tightly written motion, it's all about Aberdeen's engagement, so I would be grateful if perhaps you could make some mention of Aberdeen's engagement with that. I did take people from the north-east as well, however, I will now cease my wanderings and close. I also begin by congratulating Alex Johnson on securing today's debate. I acknowledge his commitment to the links between Japan and Scotland more widely through his convenership of the cross-party group on Japan. However, I will be very focused on Aberdeen's link today, although we all enjoyed Mr Buchanan's contribution. Mr Johnson has been quite right to bring to our attention today the importance of that historic link between Aberdeen and Japan through the contribution of Thomas Blake Glover to the development of Japanese industry and to such an important firm as Mitsubishi. Of course, his contribution to commerce in Japan went far broader than just that, as Lewis MacDonald said. He helped to found the Japan Brewery Company, which became the major Kirin Brewery Company, which distributes its projects across the world and very much as well to Aberdeen. He also promoted the mining and rail industries in Japan as well. He was certainly somebody who engaged in enterprise in a whole different range of fields. His achievement should be properly recognised in this country, including through Glover House in Aberdeen, as it undoubtedly is in Japan. I understand that Glover Garden House in Nagasaki attracts 2 million visitors every year. People in Aberdeen should be aware and proud of his achievements, and they should inspire more of our people to achieve great things across the world. I hope that Glover today will be proud that, in his native city, that pioneering, achieving spirit is alive and well with Aberdeen, a truly globally connected city and the energy hub of Europe. That brings people from across the world to Aberdeen and see skilled workers from the city travel the globe, particularly in the energy industry. I am very pleased that the contribution of Thomas Blake Glover and the importance of Aberdeen's links with Japan have been recognised by our city council in developing the Japan engagement strategy. Our city's role as the energy hub of Europe and, of course, our local authority has ensured that we capitalise on this strong position by encouraging more international companies to bring their business to Aberdeen. Of course, that applies to Japan as well. Lewis MacDonald is rightly referred to the contribution that is made by Barney Crockett in this important work. It is also good that we are joined today in the chamber by Councillor Ross Thomson, by Deputy Provost John Reynolds and by Councillor Willie Young. That shows the commitment of the council to the important issues that we are debating today. The delegation from the council to Japan has been an important development in renewing and strengthening the links between Aberdeen and Japan. As Alex Johnson has pointed out, those links are not simply about marking the significance of the historical link. They are about building stronger links in the future as well. Fittingly, given that Glover's multi-fastered approach to his own life in industry, there are a whole range of activities that are natural for institutions and businesses in Aberdeen to work more closely with their Japanese counterparts in renewables, food and drink, with our successful whisky industry, in golf tourism and, of course, through the work of our universities. I know that there has already been collaborative research between Aberdeen University and academic institutions in Japan. I hope that the new engagement strategy between Aberdeen and Japan will be successful in the future and will be mutually beneficial to both parties and will stimulate investment, research and jobs both in Aberdeen and in Japan. That would be a fitting legacy for the immense contribution of Thomas Blake Glover and will be supported not only across the chamber and across the council chamber but in Japan and in our great city of Aberdeen as well. Many thanks. I now invite Humza Yousaf to respond to the debate minister in around seven minutes please. Yes, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm delighted to welcome this debate and thank Alex Johnson for securing it. I also welcome his excellency, the Consul General Ykoso. I welcome here to the chamber. It would be remiss of me not to also put on record the fantastic work, especially the interaction that I have had with his predecessor, the Consul General's predecessor, Consul Tarrahara, who was a great asset to Japan, but he was also here to Scotland. Many of us were serenaded by his singing, but he was equally as good in creating those links between Scotland and Japan. Great contributions across the chamber. I've heard—I was really looking forward to this debate because I knew that I would hear some interesting facts about the links between Aberdeen and Japan, some by Mark Macdonald, Alex Johnson and other speakers too, in particular, things that I didn't know about, but it shows the depth and the strength of connection over the years that sometimes we take for granted. Perhaps we should be doing a lot more from a Government perspective as well as with the council. I'm also delighted to welcome the wider engagement strategy that Aberdeen City Council would like to pursue. I think that it's important to do that. My word of advice, if it's worth anything to the council, would be, just as the Scottish Government has to do, that it's worth being very targeted in terms of the geography that you wish to target within Japan and also the sectors within Japan. There are many sectors that Aberdeen could connect, but the energy has been mentioned by those here, and I think that that's a great place to start. In 2011, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Japanese Consulate in Scotland, one of the oldest consulates here in Scotland. Having the consulate here as an important commitment by the Japanese Government reflects how important success of Japanese Governments have set the links between Scotland and Japan. We welcome that, and we're committed to working with the consulate and their staff. Japan, as we've heard in the debate, is the world's third-largest economy. We've long recognised its importance as an investor in Scottish Development International, our public agency that deals with our trade and investment, has had an office in Tokyo since the mid-80s. It continues not only to actively encourage Scottish companies to explore the opportunities in the Japanese market but also, of course, the other way around in terms of investment, too. On that note, there are currently 65 Japanese companies in Scotland employing almost 5,000 people. Many of those companies in the northeast of Scotland, many of them in Aberdeen and the benefits of those companies in Aberdeen are felt. Scotland's first Japanese investor, Terasaki Electric, established operations more than 40 years ago. It now has its European and African operations in Clyde Bank. It celebrated its 40th anniversary just last year in June. More recently, new investment activity in Japan has created 21 new jobs and safeguarded 74. The Scottish Government has continued engagement from a ministerial perspective, a ministerial level with Japan. Ministers' presence in the country can often help to show our own commitment from Scotland to various countries. The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment, Richard Lochhead, in 2012 visited Japan with a delegation of about 20 Scottish food and drink companies from an in-market workshop in Japan. Again, companies come from the northeast of Scotland. In the first nine months of 2013, a food export from Scotland to Japan will be worth £15.1 million. That is up a couple of per cent, two per cent, on the first nine months of the previous year before. As well as the energy that has been focused on here, Aberdeen in the northeast also has other assets and food and drink, rightly mentioned by Alex Johnson is certainly one of them. That visit has been followed up in May last year by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth, John Swinney, to build on previous engagements as well. The number of Scottish companies that have a presence in Japan is increasing. We have Royal Bank of Scotland, Aberdeen Asset Management, Wood McKenzie and Johnson's of Elgin. Again, the northeast in Aberdeen is well represented. The Scottish Government values our connection with Japan above and beyond just trade and investment. Many members here have mentioned some of those important educational links, particularly with Aberdeen. Aberdeen and Robert Gordon universities have a number of links with Japanese institutions. Richard Baker quite rightly mentioned their exchange and research programmes. The University of Aberdeen and the Rotary Club of Aberdeen Balgowney sponsors the annual Thomas Blake Glover. Scholarship gives students an excellent opportunity to undertake a three-week study exchange in Nagasaki. We also have a number of 205 Japanese students at higher education institutes here in Scotland. It is fair to say that they make a fantastic contribution having studied myself along with one of those international students. When I was in Glasgow University, they were certainly the last ones to leave the library and certainly weren't messing around the library as much as other students like myself were doing. Just as Alex Johnson, Lewis Macdonald and others mentioned the hard work ethic within factories in other places, which is also replicated by Japanese students. One of the first engagements that I had as a minister was to mark the 30th anniversary of the Japanese school. Livingston, I went to an Urdu school as a child and it wasn't too different to that. You learn a bit of the culture, a bit of the language and you get to socialise. However, what was even more impressive about the Japanese school is that it also provides a lot of confidence to the Japanese investor community here in Scotland. I met a number of individuals from a variety of Japanese companies who were there and said that one of the main factors for them moving to Scotland was that there was a whole ecosystem built. There was a school for their children, specifically for the language and the culture that they took extraordinarily importantly. Just to finish off, cultural links are also very important to us. Many of us will know about the Victoria and Albert museum being built in Dundee, of course, designed by Kengo Kuma. There are also Japanese architects. There are also a number of tours and links and performances exchanges that we have and we are delighted to support them and continue to support them as well. In terms of sport and sporting links, many have mentioned those sporting links, the cricket match, which I do not think that many people would have known Japanese Japan's like of the sport of cricket, but perhaps equally not many people in most Scotland's like of the game too. I remember that debate that took place in terms of sporting activity. The tour that was mentioned by Alex Johnson supported cricket for smiles aid, which was set up after the Japanese earthquake in 2011 to help children in the affected area. Those sporting links are also having a great outcome. I am going to skip over the football because the last time Japan played Scotland it was 2-0 to the Japanese, although I was quite happy because Nakamura from my home club of Celtic put in a good performance, but we will glaze over that. In conclusion, I absolutely continue to support and build on the links with Japan and the Scottish Government that will do that. I am equally delighted that our councils are taking this initiative. I congratulate Aberdeen and all those involved, and I wish the wider engagement strategy every success. Before I suspend Parliament, I remind members for the record that under rules 7.2.3, contributions must be relevant to the motion, and that includes responses by ministers. In terms of members' business motions, quite often those motions are very specific as the one was today. In the circumstances, I am entitled under the rules to stop the member, however, as members may realise, I always prefer to remind the member simply to come back to the topic. I now suspend this meeting of Parliament until 2.30pm.