 Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry to interrupt. I apologize for interrupting the conversations, but we want to begin. And I want to say thank you to all of you for coming. We're delighted you're here. We have many more people who are going to be joining us. But, you know, Washington, there's an old saying, you know, when you call... In the old days, some of the older people around here remember that you used to call the operator to find out what the time was, you know? And the old joke in Washington is when you call the operator, you can say, well, it's 8.15, 8.30 at the latest, you know? And that's...we're still going to have people that will be joining us. And we've got a very, very good registration for the conference. Thank you. Thank you all for coming. My name is John Hamry. I'm the president here at CSIS. I am delighted to have this opportunity to welcome back to Washington my very good friend, Hatake Amazon. We've had a chance to work together for many years. We first met when Naboro was the head of JETRO. And at that time established a very good, close working relationship and have been able to sustain that since then. And I'm very pleased to have this opportunity. And I'll say in just a minute why I think it's so important. But if I could, I would like to begin by just stepping back for a second to say, the reason I was so glad that we could have this conference and it's become an annual event that we do with the Japan Economic Forum Foundation is that we're going through a rather tumultuous period right now in relations between our two countries. And it all seems to be summarized by the one word, futenma, you know? Futenma is on everybody's lips. And every time I meet with friends from Japan, I'm always asked, well, what about futenma? And I always tell Japanese don't need to know this, but this is for my American friends. It's hard for us to appreciate the enormous significance of this last election. And I'm not speaking about, I'm not making a partisan comment. It isn't about partisan politics. It's that it represented really an incredible shift in an epoch of politics in Japan. We have had only four or five of these in the United States' history. Probably the one of comparable significance for us was back when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected that just completely changed the political landscape. And for Japan, Japan has since the end of World War II was led by a party that developed a remarkably successful strategy, a strategy that took a country that was in ashes, literally in ashes and made it the second largest economy in the world and gave Japanese citizens this remarkable standard of living and to do so in a way that was still fully consistent with the cultural heritage of Japan. It's a remarkable thing what was accomplished during this period. But in this success, it led to a period of time when in these last years have been economic strain in Japan. It's been going on for a number of years. And it's led to some very deep questioning about Japan and the world. And for many years, Japan saw itself as being America's best partner in the world. But it led to some developments that became controversial. And when the United States asked Japan to help in Iraq and Afghanistan, that became controversial. And a lot of Japanese felt that they were pulled into something that wasn't their business and did it only because of this relationship with the United States. And an attitude started to develop that maybe Japan is doing things that aren't in its best interest just because of this subordinate relationship with a big brother. And maybe we need to think that through in a different way. I think that was very much a part of this last election. And I think it's still going on. I think that Japan is still deeply thinking through the way forward now. And what is that way forward? And based on this intimate partnership with the United States, is it Japan taking a larger leadership role in Asia? Is it that Japan will see its main partner in the world, the United Nations? I mean, I think there's just lots of very deep, very important questioning going on in Japan. And frankly, we're going to do some of that now after this last year here. I think that the vision that President Obama set the first year is now causing a great re-questioning. So this is very natural. The reason I go through it is to say, and this is to my American friends, we should be careful not to force a decision on something so pivotal as Futenma because it's really symbolic of something much bigger. And Japan needs time to think their way through this. If we were to force it in our frustration, because we had 13 long years of negotiating it, and these were tough negotiations. This was not an easy compromise between the two of us. But the GIST government had nothing to do with it. I mean, they were not involved with those negotiations. So if we were to say right now, you have got to decide right now what the answer is in the middle of the great questioning that's going on, we're likely to get the wrong answer. And Japan may be likely to get the wrong answer. So it's a lot better for us to take the time to work with each other, to be patient with each other. And frankly, the United States needs to do some reassessment as well. We still can't figure out what our trade policy is in this country. And yet the great questioning that's going on in Japan and in this country is how are we going to get out of this recession? So we've got a lot we need to do together. And that's why I'm so glad we have this conference today where Japan and the United States share a very large central problem, economic problem, and that is how do we sustain the quality of life and the standard of living for our workers when they have to compete against 800 million Chinese workers who are working a lot harder for a lot less money and willing to live in a lot poorer circumstances. And we have got to find ways that reconciles our economic system in a global economic environment that's very challenging. Now, if we were to try to do that through our own separate national means, we could end up having a quite inferior option for both of us. If we can find a way to do it together, we're more likely going to find success. So it's Hataka Amazon, thank you for the vision that you had in wanting to have this conference and to make it the central theme. We need many, many more ways for Japan and the United States to be working together now as both of us are thinking our way forward in a complex new world. So I congratulate you for your vision and I think now we should be really having substance today. I'm only here for ornamental reasons, which is to welcome you, but I did want to say thank you all for coming and I would like to ask my very good friend Hataka Amazon to come and open the conference for real. Thank you very much. Good morning. My name is Hatakeyama, Noboru Hatakeyama and thank you very much for those kind and encouraging words coming from Dr. Hamre. Dr. Hamre, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honor to be here with you this morning at this important conference. First of all, I'd like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Hamre for co-organizing this conference and to all the speakers, discussants and the participants for attending the conference in spite of your busy schedule. Today we will be discussing possible future courses that the U.S. and Japanese economies may take. Both economies have faced difficulties and challenges and there are many issues to consider. For example, below our economy encounter double-dip this year, this is a very serious question, and could green-related technologies and new health related inventions actually substitute the automotive and related industries? What sort of new business models would help corporations to revitalize their activities? Should we be ready for a new capitalism with governments and private sector changing roles to some extent? On the National Security Front, as was referred to by Dr. Hamre, our discussion may lead to if commitments made by a former government can survive a power shift. As you know, the new Hatoyama Cabinet has decided to review by May of this year a commitment made by former cabinets. The Obama Administration also changed the policy implemented by the Bush Administration regarding a missile defense system which had been deployed in the Czech Republic and Poland. Our topics won't end up at those points. We have to scrutinize realities and cultivate possible collaborative policy areas between our two countries. For example, we have to address the real reasons for the financial crisis that was deepened by their members' collapse in September of 2008. Since then, many international conferences have taken place, including the G20 in London and Pittsburgh, with the aim of coming up with measures to prevent a recurrence of such a financial crisis. However, they have never referred to the possible prohibition of the securitization of subprime loans, which was one of the most important causes of this deep recession. Securitization in general would be all right, but when it comes to securitization of subprime loans, the story becomes quite different. Is there any room for the governments of the United States and Japan to cooperate with each other in prohibiting this? Another example would be for us to take joint initiatives to continue stimulating our economies, analyzing whether the economic recovery in both countries to date is sustainable, and if not, coming up with proposals to continue the current recovery. In this respect, President Obama's proposal to impose a new tax on financial institutions, including banks, is quite interesting. Reportedly, the government of Japan has been asked if it would do the same. If Japan accepts this proposal, it will be the first economic collaboration between Japan and the U.S. and the current new governments. The DPJ, the Democratic Party of Japan, stated in the manifest, it published in the election for the House of Representatives last August or so, that it would accelerate negotiations on the Japan-U.S. FDA. Although it would be ideal to conclude a full-fledged U.S.-Japan FDA, my proposal is to strike a U.S.-Japan FDA for trading services alone, since I'm afraid that the U.S. Congress and the Japanese diet are not supportive of a full-fledged FDA, which includes both trade in goods and services. Although the original nature of an FDA remains economic, an FDA can lead to strengthened political relations between countries involved in it. As with any other FDAs, a U.S.-Japan FDA, even if it were for trading services alone, would contribute greatly to deepening and enhancing our mutual relationship even more. I expect that the speakers and commentators today will touch upon some of these issues, and by the end of this discussion, it will have contributed to increase your knowledge and wisdom and finding some realistic solutions over such issues. With these comments, I'd like to thank the people affiliated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS, and the other participants once again for joining us here today. Thank you very much.