 Dweud i gyntaf o'r gwmpu gymaintau ac yn odeb i ddechrau nhw'n 18 ystod ar gyfer lyfr. Wrth cwrs, mae gasbwystei'r cymaint ac yn cyhoedd gwneud i'n mynd i'n dechrau panau. Mae hyn amddiannod oedd yr ymlaen nhw yn sain. Yr ystod yn mynd i fynd yn fyddleniol, oedd yn ymlaen ei hyn sy'n byw. Fe hyn ystod ymlaen ei hyn am y cwmaint nhw, dwi'n arwain ymlaen ei hyn yn teimlo'r ymlaen ei hyn yn fêno gyddyddol gyda'r ystafell diolch mewn cyfnodau sadyn o mor cyfnodau. Felly, dym ni'n gwneud o'r cwmno'n ei wneud? Felly, dym ni'n gwneud o'u gwneud o'i gwneud o'u gwneud o ddeithasgr Ellin. Felly, dym ni'n gwneud o'u gwneud o'u gwneud o'u gwneud o'u gwneud o ffordd, ddim yn cyffinogaeth f perderol, ac rwy'n ffordd rynnodd Awesomehead i'r dyma'r cymddi sydd gennym ni'n gyfun Field of the Halif SWE, I would like to welcome Dean Lockhart MSP to the meeting. Dean would be the convener of the proposed group. I would like to invite Dean Lockhart MSP to make an opening statement about the purpose of the group, please. Thank you, convener, and good morning everyone for giving me the opportunity to appear before the committee this morning. The proposed cross-party group on Japan can make an important contribution in a number of areas. By way of background, Scotland continues to see increasing links with Japan in a number of areas, including trade, foreign direct investment, education, culture and sports. In terms of trade, Japan is a major export market for Scotland and is the fourth largest investor into Scotland. There are opportunities for Scottish business in a number of sectors to increase trade with Japan. In education, we are seeing an increasing number of Japanese students coming to educational establishments in Scotland, high school as well as higher education. In terms of culture and sports, we are seeing increasing ties between the countries. We have the upcoming world cup, a rugby world cup in Japan and the Olympics also hosted in Japan. In terms of the role of the proposed cross-party group, we will look to work with key stakeholders and organisations to promote all those links and to promote within Parliament a better understanding of the links between the two countries. Thank you very much, Dean. Can we have any questions from members? First one from Gil, and then from Elaine, please, and then Tom. Just for information, is this the first cross-party group in Japan in the Scottish Parliament? No, it's not. In previous sessions of the Parliament, there have been cross-party groups on Japan. In a sense, this is a proposal to reintroduce the cross-party group on Japan. I'm surprised if you could enlighten us why it didn't maintain itself, because not only have you described exactly where we are at present time, and I concur with what you've said about the importance of a good connection between Japan and Scotland. Of course, in the past, Scotland's relationship with Japan in the past right up until the Second World War was very, very close. A lot of Scots have been involved, including a lady from Kirkntilloch who brought Santori to Japan. Some of the big conglomerates had Scottish connections, so I'm surprised. I'm very much support what you're doing, I should say, but I'm surprised that it fell away in the first place. Maybe you could not assure responsibility, but it would be an understanding why that was. I think that it was a situation where the different members who were involved previously were not able to take it forward. I agree with you that there's a real need to increase and look at the ties, so that's something that I begin to do, moving forward. Thank you very much, Gil. Just before Elaine comes in, I just welcome member of group Maureen. Maureen, what is our item? Just to let Maureen know that we're on the item right at the beginning to talk about the cross-party group in Japan. You're up to speed there. That's great. Thank you for that. Thanks very much, convener, and thanks for coming along this morning to Dean Lockhart. I don't certainly don't have any objection at all to a cross-party group on Japan, although we do have quite a number of cross-party groups. It's probably getting to the point where I'm wondering how members are going to be able to be covering them all, but it does seem that what the member has outlined is a reason and a purpose for having a cross-party group. What I'm interested in is that the very name cross-party group usually indicates that the office bearers would be from different parties, but you're proposing that your office bearers are the convener and deputy convener, and they're both from the Conservative party. That may happen in other cross-party groups, but I don't know of it. I think that that's a bit unusual. Is that something that you've thought about? It's a good question. It's certainly not by design. I think that it's frankly a function of this cross-party group being established quite a bit later on in the term, and there being a lot of other commitments that other MSPs have, so I don't think that that was something that we intentionally set out to do. I'm very happy, if and when the group gets up and established, I'm very happy to have another look at that, and to increase the participation of other parties in the group going forward. Thank you, and just for clarification. That's a good point, Elaine. Thank you very much. There are other cross-party groups of similar circumstance, and it's not in the code, so it is allowed, but it's a very good point because I hadn't actually thought about it at all. What is the knowledge with the group so far of Japanese language? Is it intended that you travel out there during the various events that are beginning to take place between ourselves and Japan? We would certainly have no plans for any travel. The group is strongly supported by a number of stakeholders, including the Asia-Scotland Institute, which is a leading organisation in Scotland with the role of increasing links not just with Japan but with Asia generally, and the secretariat is supported by David Burrell, who is the chief executive of Asia-Scotland, so I think that we've got a strong base there. I personally speak a little Japanese. I've worked in Tokyo for two years, so I've got a bit of experience myself, but I won't try to speak Japanese this morning. I think that you were only supposed to be there for a year, but you couldn't find your way out, not reading the signs or something like that. Okay, thank you very much. Any other questions at all? Okay. We would like to thank Dean for your attendance, and the committee will consider to approve the application for recognition, and we'll inform you thereafter of our decision. Thank you very much, convener. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dean. Okay, so the next item, as you will see on your sheet there, is agenda item 3, and that is approval of cross-party group on Japan. Can I invite comments from members, please? Yes, Elaine. Thank you. Just in terms of what I was asking previously, I do think that it would be good practice for cross-party groups to try and have office bearers from different parties, so it's maybe something that might not be in the codes, but perhaps it's something that we should be trying to encourage. However, I don't have an invitation to this group for me. Sure. Okay, Rhett and Gil. Well, I know that we're here to really look at the mechanisms, and it's quite a technical aspect that, as far as I'm concerned, we should get engaged in. Having said that, I think that it's a good cross-party group that would be a benefit to Scotland and the UK, in fact. I think that the fact that we don't have one is quite surprising to me. I think that there are great opportunities in all sorts of ways, such as art, commerce and industry. I'm very much supported, I think, so I can admit it. I'll bring something back from what they do. Okay, thank you very much. Tom Mason and then Maureen Watt, please. Yes, I'm fully supportive of this, but my only concern going forward is just how many cross-party groups we've actually generated. I think that we've approved one every time a saturness committee is so far, and it's coming to the point where MSPs are being pretty thin on the ground, so I think that we should look at that in this not too distant future. Okay, I think that that's a reasonable thing to say. Thank you, Tom, and Maureen, please. Yeah, apologies again for being late, convener. I'm very supportive of this group being set up. We had one previously, and it was very much the baby of the late Alec Johnson, and I don't know if that's been said before, but you know, it was a shame that it fell into Bains, and I think it being resurrected and formed again would be a testament to him. I think that's a very good point to raise, actually. I think it should be, as it is on the record anyway. I think that's really nice. Okay, I think that there's any other points. Two things coming out of that, well three. One is that there appears to be no one against the establishment of this committee. Cross-party group on Japan, there are two elements. One was regarding the make-up of the membership, and I think that we could maybe look into that further, not in this particular instance, but in general. I also, of course, the fact that Tom Mason has referred to, and it's been referred to before by Tom and others, that this would be up to about 106, I think, cross-party groups, which is a lot, and we maybe do need to address that in some way, and come back to that at a future meeting to talk about that. Is that the same reason, Tom? Maybe the clerks can sort out a answer paper to discuss options for that. Okay, well that's good, and thanks because I've been informed that the CPG annual report will be coming up soon, and that'd be an opportunity for us to have an input to that, and that seems reasonable, I think. Okay, so can we look at whether members agree to accord recognition to the proposed cross-party group on Japan? Great. And people do, and that means the members do, and that means that that cross-party group on Japan can be established, and that ends the public part of this meeting today. Thank you very much.