VZCZCXRO1719
OO RUEHFK RUEHGH RUEHKSO RUEHNAG RUEHNH
DE RUEHKO #0996/01 1190809
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 290809Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY TOKYO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2655
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 9060
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 6512
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 5082
RUEHGP/AMEMBASSY SINGAPORE 7381
RUEHKSO/AMCONSUL SAPPORO 4319
RUEHOK/AMCONSUL OSAKA KOBE 7584
RUEHFK/AMCONSUL FUKUOKA 3782
RUEHNAG/AMCONSUL NAGOYA 1436
RUEHNH/AMCONSUL NAHA 6120
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 6769
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 0576
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 3512
RHMCSUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/TREASURY DEPT WASHDC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TOKYO 000996 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
USTR FOR AUSTR CUTLER, BEEMAN, AND HOLLOWAY 
EAP FOR AMBASSADOR HASLACH 
DOE FOR OFFICE OF NUCLEAR ENERGY/MCGINNIS 
DOE FOR OFFICE OF POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 
DOC FOR 4410/ITA/MAC/OJ 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD ENRG PREL SENV KIPR JA
SUBJECT: METI PREVIEWS MINISTER NIKAI'S U.S. TRIP 
 
REF: TOKYO 473 
 
Summary 
------- 
¶1. (SBU) Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Toshihiro 
Nikai will visit New Mexico, Chicago, and Washington during a 
May 1-6 trip to the United States.  Trip details, and the 
substance of proposed MOUs to be signed, are coming together 
quickly.  In Washington, Nikai plans to see Energy Secretary 
Chu, USTR Kirk, and Commerce Secretary Locke.  The main 
purpose of the trip, said METI officials, is to advance the 
agreement the President and PM Aso reached in February to 
promote environmental and energy cooperation.  A preview of 
Nikai's agenda in each meeting is included.  METI officials 
note Nikai seems more subdued following recent press reports 
that suggest his involvement in a political fund-raising 
scandal.   End summary. 
 
Stops in New Mexico, Chicago 
---------------------------- 
¶2. (SBU) Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) 
Minister Toshihiro Nikai will stop in New Mexico, Chicago, 
and Washington during a May 1-6 trip to the United States, 
METI Americas Division Director Yasushi Akahoshi told emboffs 
April 28.  Details are still under discussion both within the 
Ministry and with U.S. partners, stressed Akahoshi, but the 
trip is coming together quickly and its outlines are now set. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Nikai will land in Albuquerque the evening of May 1 
and stay until the morning of May 3. During the times he 
plans to attend a series of meetings involving New Mexico's 
high-level research institutions, including Sandia National 
Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory.  Akahoshi said 
Minister Nikai may have a dinner with scientists from the 
institutions on the evening of May 1 or lunch with them May 
¶2.  He will also visit the Center for Integrated 
Nanotechnologies (CINT) branch laboratory at Sandia. 
 
¶4. (SBU) While in New Mexico, Nikai will meet Governor 
Richardson to sign "some kind of Memorandum of Understanding 
between METI and the State of New Mexico."  Asked about the 
MOU, Akahoshi stated New Mexico is interested in promoting 
"smart grid" technologies and that about 30 Japanese business 
people and METI officials had participated in a smart grid 
conference in early April.  From that idea, and with text 
from a sample MOU one of METI's bureaus had signed in the 
past with New Mexico, a broad, conceptual MOU is being 
rapidly drafted. 
 
¶5. (SBU) On May 3, Minister Nikai will make a short stop in 
Chicago en route to Washington.  There he plans to meet 
several Japanese members of the law firm Sidley Austin, some 
of whom are former colleagues of the President and the First 
Lady.  The meeting has been arranged, said Akahoshi, by a 
lawyer named Tomoo Nishikawa, whose wife, Akira Matsu, is a 
Diet member who was METI Deputy Minister during the Koizumi 
administration.  Afterwards, Nikai will proceed to Washington 
and a dinner with Japanese Ambassador Fujisaki. 
 
Washington Meetings 
------------------- 
¶6. (SBU) Minister Nikai plans to see U.S. Trade 
Representative Kirk and Department of Energy Secretary Chu 
May 4 and Department of Commerce Secretary Locke on May 5. 
He will also have dinner with members of the Japanese 
business community May 4. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Akahoshi stated the Minister's primary purpose in 
 
TOKYO 00000996  002 OF 002 
 
 
Washington will be "to materialize the agreement made between 
Prime Minister Aso and President Obama in February to promote 
environmental and energy cooperation."  He said METI hopes to 
use Nikai's meeting at DOE to sign an MOU between officials 
from the U.S. National Laboratories and Japan's Advanced 
Institute of Science and Technology, but that who would sign 
the MOU and its specific content were still under discussion. 
 Asked, he suggested the MOU would be in the field of energy 
and the environment and offered fuel cell, solar, and carbon 
capture and storage technologies as possible areas of 
collaboration. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Japan's Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) President Toshio 
Okazaki may accompany Nikai on his U.S. trip, said Akahoshi, 
but a final decision has not been made.  Akahoshi said 
Okazaki's presence would be in a "social" capacity.  (Note: 
According to Yutaka Sagayama of the JAEA, METI agreed to 
Okazaki's participation and is now seeking approval from the 
U.S.  End Note.) 
 
¶9. (SBU) Regarding Nikai's meeting with Commerce Secretary 
Locke, Akahoshi noted the U.S. and Japan had reached broad 
agreement on a joint initiative on patent cooperation, but 
that it did not appear an agreement on specific language 
could be reached in the short time left before Nikai's visit; 
this meant there could be no deliverable associated with that 
topic during the trip.  METI is interested, he added, in 
enhancing cooperation with the National Institute of 
Standards and Technology (NIST). 
 
¶10. (SBU) Turning to Nikai's meeting with USTR Kirk, Akahoshi 
stated the Minister would likely discuss ways in which Japan 
and the U.S. can resist protectionism in the current global 
economic situation, as well as ways to advance the Doha 
Development Agenda.  He will also likely touch upon APEC's 
agenda under successive Japanese and U.S. leadership but do 
so without offering new or specific ideas on how to 
cooperate.  Nikai, continued Akahoshi, would appreciate 
hearing USTR Kirk's thoughts on how to move forward on 
bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade arrangements and 
is also interested in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement 
(ACTA) and Chinese information technology security standards. 
 In explaining the Minister's talking points, however, 
Akahoshi cautioned that while METI's Americas Division has 
drafted Nikai's briefing papers, it has not had the chance to 
present them to the Minister and receive his feedback. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Asked about bilateral trade issues, Akahoshi said 
METI expects USTR Kirk to raise beef and insurance, but that 
Minister Nikai is not planning to present Japanese trade 
issues for discussion.  He also does not intend to raise 
METI's report to WTO Director General Lamy concerning global 
protectionist trends (ref). 
 
Nikai's Political Standing 
-------------------------- 
¶12. (SBU) Akahoshi declined to comment on how the ongoing 
money and politics scandal involving Nishimatsu construction, 
including the possible implication of Minister Nikai, is 
affecting the mood within METI.  Another METI official, 
however, told emboffs that Nikai in recent weeks has become 
more subdued and approachable, and is not as "aggressive" as 
he had been in past meetings.  It is as though, said the 
official, Nikai does not want to lose the support of METI's 
rank and file. 
 
ZUMWALT