Lecture by Mr. Takanori Kitamura

Synopsis

Mr. Kitamura, based on his experience in Europe, introduces the institutional characteristics of the EU. He first analyses traditional sovereign states that have existed for last 350 years and European countries that have relinquished sovereign rights and formed a community with one another for mutual benefit. He notes that EU is to share the sovereign rights and the same value.

He then speaks of East Asia with its fast growing economies that will exceed US and EU soon or later. He foresees that as a result, a tectonic power shift will take place and the traditional way of managing East Asia will be challenged. He claims that East Asia will benefit a lot from forming a regional community. He stresses that China and Japan are to shoulder main task of initiating and leading the community building and for that purpose, the strategic partnership between China and Japan is extremely important.