US, Japan Commerce Officials Talk Export Control Cooperation

The U.S. and Japan agreed to continue cooperating around technology export controls in a meeting between their two top commerce ministers April 10.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Saito Ken “agreed to continue existing, robust export control cooperation to address national security threats and protect critical and emerging technologies from abuse by malign actors who seek to use them in contravention to our regional and national security interests,” Commerce said in a readout after their meeting in Washington.

The two officials specifically “acknowledged the progress” the U.S. and Japan have made in cooperating on semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum and biotechnology, the agency said, and they “committed to further collaboration between the ministries.” They also agreed to continue working together to promote “transparent, robust, and sustainable supply chains” and plan to continue cooperating “on current-generation and mature-node (‘legacy’) semiconductors.”

The meeting, which was the third Japan-U.S. Commercial and Industrial Partnership Ministerial Meeting, came the same day President Joe Biden met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, when they discussed defense trade cooperation and other issues (see 2404100066).