Hiroshi Nakaso: Germany and Japan - a central banker's perspective on their past and future relationship

Speech by Mr Hiroshi Nakaso, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Japan, at the Dinner meeting hosted by Deutsche Bundesbank Regional Office in Berlin and Brandenburg, Berlin, 9 January 2018.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Central bank speech  | 
21 March 2018

Introduction

Vielen Dank für Ihre sehr freundlichen Worte. Es ist mir eine große Freude und Ehre, hier heute im schönen Berlin und Brandenburg vor Ihnen sprechen zu dürfen! Ich würde mir wünschen, meine Ansprache weiter auf Deutsch halten zu können. Um Ihnen aber meine Gedanken besser vermitteln zu können, werde ich nun auf Englisch fortfahren. (Thank you very much for your kind words. It is my pleasure and honor to speak to you here today in the beautiful city of Berlin and Brandenburg. I wish I could go on with the speech in German. But in order to better convey my thoughts to you, I will now continue in English.)

I. Relationship between Germany and Japan

Germany and Japan have a longstanding diplomatic relationship of more than 150 years. I think the phrase that best describes this is Ferne Gefährten (distant companions). This is because we have many things in common, although our countries are geographically distant. The diligence of our populations has overcome limitations of natural resources, transforming our two countries into economic powers. Today, the labels ''made in Germany'' and ''made in Japan'' are a guarantee of quality and excellence. And as mature economies, we face similar  hallenges in the future, with societal aging being one example.