Energy and Natural Resources

Oil, natural gas and iron ore - such energy and mineral resources are the underpinnings of economic activity. Yet Japan is dependent on overseas countries for most of its energy and mineral resources. Economic growth in BRICs and other new emerging economies has tightened the international resource markets, driving up the prices and intensifying a global "scramble for resources." Against this background, it is more crucial than ever for Japan to secure long-term and stable access to resources.

Environment

Global warming, cross-border pollution, shrinking rainforests and advancing desertification... Today widespread environmental problems are encroaching on the global biosphere, emerging as the dark side of the world economy, threatening its growth and moves toward integration.

In developing countries where there is a strong national drive toward growth, unbridled growth could lead to environmental destruction. In addition, climate change has brought increasingly serious consequences in recent years, with economic impact occurring on a global scale, creating problems that individual countries and companies cannot solve on their own. How can we pursuit better living in harmony with a sustainable global environment?

International Business Development

Business Development Keeping Sights on Overseas Markets: In order to succeed in business, it is increasingly important to ride the crest of globalization and stay at its forefront. Recognizing this reality, many Japanese firms are actively engaging in trade and international investment activities. By setting up new production bases outside Japan in a move to increase production overseas, they are going beyond the mature domestic market for a broader business horizon overseas where there are more opportunities for business development.

Catalyzing International Finance

The "blood of industry": The importance of financial function in economic activity is sometimes expressed in the following way. When the financial system is strained, a financial crisis may emerge, and could immediately inflict a severe blow to the economy. As the financial system is increasingly globalized, there is a high chance that it may not be possible to contain financial turmoil in one economy, and that it could well develop into a global crisis, with its contagious effects causing a chain reaction.

Knowledge sharing

We are living today in the age of the information society, with almost effortless access to a diverse range of information through the Internet and TV, not to mention print media such as newspapers and magazines. But what is available is a jumble of information with varying degrees of quality. It is therefore imperative for us to find our way around in a flood of variegated bits and pieces of information, sorting out what is relevant, accurate and useful to our purposes.