On December 2, JASK members joined Kentucky World Trade Center members in Louisville to hear Japan's official representative to Kentucky speak: Consul General Hiroshi Sato. JASK members have had many chances to meet the Consul General during 2009 since he began working in Nashville at Japan's Consulate for the Southern States.
Mr. Sato is enthusiastic about the successes Kentucky and Japan have shared during the past 25 years. His enthusiasm has encouraged many Kentucky leaders to recommit to growing our partnership in the future.
Mr. Sato's remarks focused on the recent changes in Japan and why the Japan/America partnership is essential to our global future. He spoke in detail about our economic, security, and policy partnerships.
Today, over 150 Japanese companies work in Kentucky. Japan and the United States are the world's two largest economies and we trade in almost every sector. New business opportunities are being explored in clean energy - new technologies we can grow cleanly - such as plug in hybrid cars, high temperature superconducting cables, and solar power generation.
Our security partnership, of course, includes multiple military bases in Japan, with Japan covering 75% of the costs to keep these bases operational. Our nations must continue to work together to confront threats such as North Korea, he said, which remains unpredictably dangerous. Japan values U.S. assistance in negotiating the release of dozens of abducted Japanese citizens who are held in North Korea. We also cooperate to manage the dramatic rise of China, whose military expenditures grow faster than their burgeoning GDP. Bilateral cooperation on these and other security issues over time has been a pillar of security in the Far East since World War II.
As global partners, Mr. Sato suggested that we can direct global policies to be built around shared values such as freedom, rule of law, human rights, and democracy. Nations of the world share challenges such as climate change, energy security, and transnational terrorism. Though it is the second largest economy in the world, Japan emits only 4% of global CO2 emissions. China emits 21% and the U.S., 20%. Together, Japan and the U.S. may prevail on China to join the broad coalition targeting significant reductions in emissions over the long-term.
Mr. Sato concluded that our Japan/America friendship in the last 64 years is miraculous. Furthermore, we cannot turn inward in the current crises of economy, security, and global policy. Change in Japanese government could create new, minor frictions, but the great successes of our multi-faceted partnership can continue to strengthen our nations and our world.
Following Consul General Sato's remarks, Governor Martha Layne Collins, JASK Honorary Chair, thanked him for his frequent visits to Kentucky and his encouragement to be constantly improving our partnership. She added that the six months she spent battling criticism of her initiative to bring Toyota to Georgetown while Governor were, perhaps, the most difficult of her life. However, 25 years later there is no doubt that the Japan/Kentucky partnership has been a boon to Kentucky and may continue to be so in the future. The future of Kentucky, she said, is global.