JICA President Tanaka Visited Brazil, Paraguay, and Panama

From May 2 to 8, JICA President Tanaka Akihiko visited the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Republic of Paraguay, and the Republic of Panama.

He accompanied Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida Fumio to Brazil and Paraguay as a member of the economic mission. In Brazil, in the presence of Prime Minister Kishida and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, he signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) in the fields of agriculture and climate change. In Paraguay, he announced an MoC in the field of space exploration, with Prime Minister Kishida and Paraguayan President Santiago Peña Palacios in attendance. JICA President Tanaka also participated in events and met with representatives of Nikkei (people of Japanese descent) communities alongside Prime Minister Kishida, acknowledging the importance of people-to-people interactions in promoting collaboration between Japan and Nikkei communities in Latin America.
During his subsequent visit to Panama, he inspected cooperative projects in infectious disease control and urban transport, as well as holding talks with key government officials.

On May 3, Prime Minister Kishida and President Lula da Silva launched the Brazil-Japan Partnership Initiative on Environment, Climate, Sustainable Development and Resilient Economies, also known as the Japan-Brazil Green Partnership Initiative (GPI). Based on this agreement, an MoC for the promotion of the National Program for the Conversion of Degraded Pastures into Sustainable Agricultural and Forestry Production Systems (PNCPD) was signed by JICA President Tanaka, Minister of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA) Carlos Henrique Baqueta Fávaro, Minister of Agrarian Development and Family Farming (MDA) Luiz Paulo Teixeira, and President of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) Silvia Maria Fonseca S. Massruhá.

Alongside Prime Minister Kishida, President Tanaka also participated in informal gatherings with twelve organizations of Nikkei people in the Federal District, State of Goiás, and State of Tocantins, reaffirming the importance of collaboration with these communities in areas such as Japanese language education and entrepreneurship.

On May 4, in São Paulo, President Tanaka attended the welcome ceremony for Prime Minister Kishida at the Brazilian Society of Japanese Culture and Social Assistance (Bunkyo), in addition to government events such as an offering of flowers and prayers at the Mausoleum of Pioneers of Japanese Immigration and Prime Minister Kishida’s speech on foreign policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean, reasserting the importance of the partnership with Brazil, which is home to the world’s largest Nikkei community. During his speech, Prime Minister Kishida announced a plan to implement exchange programs at a scale of 1,000 people over the next three years. JICA, too, plans to contribute to vitalizing exchanges between people through the Unidos pelo Futuro (United for the Future) program, launched on February 29 of this year in collaboration with Brazilian Nikkei organizations.

In the evening of the same day, President Tanaka attended the Japan-Brazil Business Forum together with the members of the economic mission, confirming initiatives to strengthen economic cooperation between the private sectors of both countries.

On the afternoon of May 3, JICA President Tanaka visited Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, and signed an MoC with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Agencia Espacial del Paraguay (AEP), the Paraguayan space agency, to promote space exploration through industry-government-university collaboration between the two countries. The MoC will promote the Japan-Paraguay Space Cooperation Program introduced at the joint press conference of Prime Minister Kishida and President Peña Palacios of the same day.

President Tanaka also participated in a meeting with people of Paraguayan Nikkei communities sponsored by the Japanese Government, as well as a meeting with Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) and JICA experts active there. There are 10,000 Nikkei people in Paraguay, forming a community that symbolizes the friendly relations between the two countries.

After accompanying Prime Minister Kishida on his visit to South America, on May 6, President Tanaka visited Panama City, the capital of Panama. At the construction site of the Panama City Urban Transportation Line-3 (Panama Metro Line-3), funded by a Japanese ODA loan, he inspected the rolling stock yard where cars sent from Japan are stored, as well as the monorail track. He also visited the Panama Canal, a strategic hub for global logistics that has been affected by water shortages. In addition, there was exchange of opinions between Minister of Economy and Finance Héctor Alexander, and Vice Minister of Multilateral Affairs and International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yill del Carmen Otero Guevara.