Japan and France have agreed to share information and explore deeper cooperation on the automotive industry. In a Memorandum of Cooperation, the two governments said they had “decided to establish a policy dialogue aimed at sharing information, supporting significant transformations of the environment of the automotive industry, and exchanging opinions concerning the possibility of further cooperation between Japan and France in industrial policy for the automotive industry.”

Among the points to be explored by the ministerial teams from the two partners are:

1. Improvement of the business environment regarding social implementation of automated/autonomous driving. This will include sharing ways of thinking about safety evaluation; identifying potential common positions on security standards; and sharing views on issues related to international rules. The teams will share information on the respective national frameworks enabling experimentation of automated/autonomous driving and identifying potential ways for a closer cooperation, such as sharing test scenarios.

2. Enhancement of the automotive battery supply chain. The teams will share views on the development of the reuse of batteries and the perspectives of standardization on related issues, such as the residual evaluation of batteries. Also of concern is efforts for ensuring a level playing field for battery production and enhancing transparency of supply chain of battery resources, by identifying ways to promote ethical sourcing of raw materials. They will also share views on the perspectives for developing complementary sources of battery-grade raw materials through recycling and identifying opportunities for cooperation.

3. Electrified vehicle policy and charging infrastructure installation. This area will cover public policies aiming at reducing CO₂ emission on a Well-to-Wheel basis, as well as on the national coverage of various kinds of charging infrastructure. The partners will share views on innovative charging technologies, such as wireless and bidirectional charging, and identify potential for increasing cooperation on experiments.

4. Market penetration of fuel cell vehicles. This area will explore hydrogen station installation for penetration to support fuel cell vehicles and sharing views on the potential for hydrogen to support the transition to a low-carbon economy.