Swedish and Japanese business leaders express desire to co-operate on sustainability, energy, digitalization, food and fintech

Swedish and Japanese business leaders discussed future opportunities and challenges at a virtual meeting on 16 March 2021. Mr. Fredrik Persson, chairman of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, Ms. Ylva Berg, CEO of Business Sweden and Mr. Jacob Wallenberg, chairman of the investment company Investor, connected with the leadership of Keidanren. The Japanese ambassador in Stockholm and the Swedish ambassador in Tokyo also participated.

There was a lot of common ground about the importance of multilateralism, WTO, and regional free trade agreements, like the one between the EU and Japan. They also exchanged views on conditions for companies as regards the pandemic and Brexit. The Japanese side also made a presentation of Society 5.0 in which AI and Internet of Things are used to meet the challenges of an ageing population, climate changes and energy scarcity.

Furthermore, several avenues for future co-operation were identified. For example, climate/sustainability, energy storage (hydrogen and batteries), digitalization, food/agriculture and fintech. Representatives of the Swedish and Japanese business organizations were tasked to follow-up how the co-operation can realized.