UK-Japan trade and economic relations meeting: 20 January 2026
Published 21 January 2026
© Crown copyright 2026
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-japan-trade-and-economic-relations-meeting-20-january-2026/uk-japan-trade-and-economic-relations-meeting-20-january-2026
On 20 January 2026, Ryosei Akazawa, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan and Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Business and Trade of the United Kingdom, held a bilateral meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
At the meeting, both sides welcomed the progress in developing and formalising the wide-ranging workplan for the UK-Japan Industrial Strategy Partnership launched in March 2025.
They confirmed that, in addition to the sectors announced by Japan and the United Kingdom in September 2025 (Advanced Manufacturing, Automotive, Clean Energy, Life Sciences, Quantum, Cyber), the partnership will in addition also include co-operation on Defence Industry, Space Industry, Creative Industries and Digital and Technology – including semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI).
They affirmed that with these additional areas confirmed, the partnership should now formally move into implementation of activity, tasking officials to identify and focus on the highest impact areas to generate economic growth. Ministers also noted that they would assess progress against this activity at the next Strategic Economic Policy and Trade Dialogue where additional sectors for inclusion could also be discussed.
Both sides also took note of and welcomed the November 2025 joint statement by the Keidanren and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). Feedback from businesses on the opportunities and challenges for growth will be essential to providing a meaningful Industrial Strategy Partnership.
The steers set out in November 2025’s statement will support prioritisation of work between the 2 governments on strategic priorities in a challenging global context. The governments of UK and Japan look forward to further joint work with businesses to identify opportunities and remove blockers to growth.
Both sides welcomed the progress achieved in reinforcing the UK-Japan Economic Security Partnership, as committed to at the UK-Japan Economic 2+2 ministers’ meeting in March 2025, to deliver substantive action that will ensure secure and resilient prosperity for both countries. Both sides shared concerns over critical minerals supply chains disruption and committed to building strong partnerships to diversify production and processing and progressing our supply chain resilience.
Finally, both sides reaffirmed their support for the rules-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core. They committed to working towards the necessary reforms of the WTO at Ministerial Conference 14 in March 2026. In this context, they also welcomed the outcomes of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Commission Meeting in Melbourne in November 2025 and committed to continuing close co-operation to expand and upgrade the agreement.