Good morning Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for attending the 15th FNCA Ministerial Level Meeting.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Minister Macfarlane, to Dr. Paterson, and to the entire ANSTO team for hosting this meeting. I have heard that Australian team has kicked off their preparations as early as March this year. Without their extraordinary efforts, I could hardly imagine that this meeting could be so perfectly and wonderfully set up.

I was looking forward to participating in this meeting, especially since I was to be co-chair. Regretfully, I have been intensively engaged with the Diet lately, and I had to delegate Mr. Nobuyasu Abe, Vice Chairman of Japan Atomic Energy Commission to attend on my behalf.

FNCA was set up as a framework for efficient and effective cooperation of Asian countries toward the peaceful use of nuclear science and technology. I would like to congratulate the FNCA Ministerial Meeting for its 15th anniversary.

Thanks to our predecessors’ tremendous efforts, FNCA projects in various fields such as agriculture, medical care, industry, environment and nuclear power development continue to demonstrate solid achievement and important contributions toward the socioeconomic development and welfare of the entire Asian region.

A good example of such activities is the Research Reactor Network Project. This project team has been engaged in building a regional network of research reactors. I highly appreciate Australia’s leadership in this project. You are going to discuss a strategy for application of multi-purpose research reactors in the roundtable discussion this afternoon. With the medical isotope’s constraint across the world, a stable supply of medical isotopes is a very timely topic to address. I hope that your discussion will be a fruitful one.

Ladies and gentlemen,
In closing my statement, I would like to assure you that Japan will proactively and continuously support the FNCA framework. At the same time, I sincerely hope that the leadership and cooperation of the FNCA leaders present in this meeting today will enhance the contribution of nuclear science and technology toward social and economic development of the region and welfare of the citizens there.

Thank you for your attention.