PRIME MINISTER KAN: First, we have the first offshore guest of honour after the earthquake, we have with us Prime Minister Gillard and I'd like to extend my heartfelt welcome to her.
Prime Minister Gillard's visit to Japan shows that Japan is safe, she is communicating this fact to the rest of the world. In this respect we think her visit to Japan, perhaps is more powerful than one million words and including that point earlier, I expressed my heartfelt appreciation to her for her visit.
Also, Prime Minister Gillard, says that a 8-year-old Australian wants a letter delivered to me and she just hand delivered it to me, and this boy looked at press reports of Japan and there is an 8-year old child in Japan who lost the parents and because of this the boy wanted to deliver a (inaudible) that may be needed by this Japanese child and also he would like to visit Japan, he would like to live here, he really wished he could go to the same school with the Japanese child. The boy wants this Japanese child to come to Australia and live with him and go to the school with him, this is letter addressed to me and Prime Minister Gillard gave it to me.
I'd like to just say that this act should be well known to the Japanese community, so this is a very heart warming feeling that we have from Australia and I have been feeling the warmth of heart all along, since the beginning, we have had a 72 strong rescue team from Australia and also C-17s came over to Japan for transport and in Sanriku the Australian rescue team was quite active and Prime Minister Gillard will visit the town two days later.
So, she is scheduled to do that and I have to say how heart warming their support has been and I'd like to express my appreciation to them for their very strong solidarity, at the same time the airlift by the C-17s for Japan, in respect of supplementary support, the Australians, the US military were the only two forces that have extended support to Japan and it's going to be a 2+2, Japan Australia for defence minister consultations and in these talks disaster relief is included, the strengthening of our security cooperation will be discussed and Prime Minister Gillard says that this is a major step toward that and I fully concurred with her.
And furthermore, with respect to the nuclear accidents, I explained to her what has transpired, it's not the situation is totally steady, but a roadmap has been announced by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, and now there should be no delay.
The Government of Japan would also like to express also at the same time that all sorts of information about the nuclear power station accident would be communicated to the entire international community including Australia and also to IAEA - Australia is one of the members and we want to provide the international community with transparent information.
At the same time this is something that was mentioned by myself and also by Prime Minister Gillard that in the course of time Australia, the LNG is a kind of energy that doesn't produce (inaudible) CO2. Australia certainly provides us with that and also Australia is developing clean energy and also the development of rare earth is another field that we would like to cooperate with each other in and we have come to an agreement on these points and furthermore towards the resolution of the negotiations over Japan Australia EPA. The basic thinking regarding its need, I have been insistent in working on that, but at this point to the Prime Minister and I think we are doing the utmost in addressing the (inaudible) earthquake crisis and if possible we would like to see a resumption of the talks.
That's what I communicated to her and I got her understanding. After the earthquake we have this first official guest of honour and on behalf of the Japanese people I'd like to once again thank her. In the Asia-Pacific region we have these two countries and I hope these two countries will cooperate further and I'd like to deepen our relationship and I think the Prime Minister's visit to Japan at this point in time has represented a major step forward and I'm sure there's going to be a further leap forward, I'm convinced of this.
That's all I have to say at this point in time, thank you.
PM: Prime Minster Kan thank you for those words and thank you for the generous invite to join you in Japan. I very much feel privileged to be the first foreign leader to be invited by the Government of Japan to visit after the devastating earthquake and tsunami. The Australian people have been thinking of you and the people of Japan at this incredibly difficult time, and perhaps our heartfelt sentiments have been best captured in the words of an 8-year-old boy, who watched in Australia what was happening in Japan, who saw on his TV screen a Japanese 8-year-old boy who had lost his parents, and then thought the best thing to do was to write to Prime Minister Kan and to ask me to deliver the letter.
In a child's words, it's about offering to share his toys. In the words of adults, it's about the two of us working together, the Australian people and the Japanese people working together, to support the people of Japan at this very difficult time.
We were pleased to support you in the immediate aftermath of the crisis, and we intend to stay true friends of Japan as Japan rebuilds and recovers, and I have made an open offer to Prime Minister Kan on more than one occasion that Australia will do anything it can to assist during this very difficult period.
I believe it's very appropriate that we have agreed that at the next 2 + 2 meeting, the meeting of our foreign ministers and defence ministers, a key item of work should be future collaboration in disaster management and emergency management. We have worked together this year in Japan, we have worked together this year in Christchurch, we should work together on a framework for ongoing cooperation - not just going to each other's aid in circumstances of natural disaster or emergency, but going together to the aid of third countries that need that assistance.
I've also been very pleased to discuss with the Prime Minister today Australia's history as a reliable supplier of energy to the people of Japan, and the fact that we will continue to be a reliable supplier of energy into the future, and particularly now, as the people of Japan need new energy sources because of the nuclear emergency which was occasioned by the tsunami and earthquake.
I've been pleased to discuss with the Prime Minister the potential for collaboration on clean energy initiatives, and I look forward to that work together, as well as our working together on the question of rare earths. Australia has rare earths, these are very sought-after commodities, and we will work with Japan as we mine and export these commodities.
Can I say, too, to the Prime Minister I very much welcomed our discussions on the free trade agreement. We understand that for the Prime Minister and the Government of Japan at this time the work that is necessary to help the Japanese people overcome the impact of the natural disaster of this year has been first and foremost the work of the Government, but I very much welcome the Prime Minister's indication that at the earliest possible opportunity we will resume discussion of the free trade agreement, and I very much welcome and endorse the Prime Minister's perspectives on free trade as announced in November last year through his basic policy and views of trade liberalisation.
We've also agreed today that at the 2 + 2 meeting, we will work together on future defence cooperation, and I very much welcome that indication from the Prime Minister.
Can I conclude by saying it's been an enormous privilege to have this first discussion. I'm very much looking forward to continuing our discussions over a working dinner, and I do again want to say thank you very much for inviting me to come to Japan at this time. I hope by being here in person I can convey to the people of Japan the very best wishes and support of the Australian people.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) to Prime Minister Kan, I have a question to your first. From tomorrow the 20km radius from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi, will be no-go zone, the people will be allowed to go there just for a few minutes.
Some people say it' too harsh, the criteria conditions for going back to their house, now you went to Fukushima to see the situation of the 50 people, you heard what they had to say, now based on what you heard with respect to the conditions for going back home, or going to review the conditions for not just for going back home but for (inaudible) permanently go back home. What are you going to do for the (inaudible), you talked about that thing going to plan, what specifics do you have to say?
Prime Gillard - Australia, Japan and the United States, the three countries have cooperated in the disaster and so on. In these fields of cooperation how do you think you are able to take of advantage of what you've learned now with respect to the nuclear accident and disaster, do you have anything to say about information disclosure?
PRIME MINISTER KAN: First, today I went near the nuclear power station in Fukushima prefecture, I visited the place where the affected people are escaping to and I had an opportunity to directly hear from them as to what they had to say.
The mayors of the village, the town and also I heard from the governor of the prefecture as well. To answer your question in respect to the set up of the evacuation zone, it doesn't really mean we're going to impose harsh conditions on the (inaudible), conversely the residents are concerned about for example the experience of thieves going into their houses, now legally by setting the evacuation zone in the area, if these people try to go into the area we can stop them, those people. So we have a legal ground to do that, a legal basis to do that.
When it comes to returning home temporarily, at the earliest possible date, however at the same time - rather than returning home - returning temporarily, being there for just a couple of hours, they were allowed to go back home, because they just left their homes without doing anything. So we'd like to provide them with an opportunity for them to get whatever they need from their houses, that is the intention of the (inaudible).
So at this point many people, including the Mayors of the communities, I believe that I have a good understanding from them and now of course these people would like to return to their houses permanently as soon as possible, of course the majority of them will have - almost all of them - and in this respect TEPCo devised a roadmap and without any delay, is possible perhaps we should realise the roadmap, but in advance, the Government would like to do its utmost and the nuclear power plant has to go into the core shutdown and when that's achieved of course decontamination has to be done very actively.
In what area, when can people go back home? We would like to establish a situation where that can take place and for that to happen, first the roadmap has to be achieved, realised and everything must be done to do that.
PM: Thank you very much for your question. I recognise the unimaginable scale of the disaster that has hit Japan, including the circumstances that gave rise to the nuclear crisis that Japan has had to face and has had to deal with. Australia very much welcomes Prime Minister Kan's commitment to sharing of information, a commitment restated to me today. We very much welcome that.
And Australia stands ready to work with Japan through the International Atomic Energy Agency, to deal with this nuclear problem and also of course to review nuclear safety for the future. And we stand ready too to do anything further we can to assist, at an earlier stage during the nuclear problem, Australia did assist by flying some equipment that was needed, with one of our C-17s, one of our big heavy-lift military aircraft and if there is anything further we can do to assist then we'd be only too pleased to do so.
JOURNALIST: Hello, I'm Matthew Franklin from The Australian newspaper and I've got a question for both leaders. I'd like to ask whether you talked in your meeting about China and I'd like to ask whether in the context of the increasing military cooperation between Japan and Australia, you have concerns about the growing military spending in China and its security implications for our region and also their growing assertiveness in the world.
On a second issue, a question to Prime Minister Kan, Australia and Japan have been good friends for many decades now, five decades of close economic and political cooperation. I would like to know how you feel and how you think your countrymen feel about the fact that Australia, despite that long friendship, is taking your country to court over the issue of whaling.
PM: If I can perhaps answer your question first Matthew, and thank you for it. The Prime Minister and I are going to continue our discussions over a working dinner tonight. Australia and Japan have shared perspectives on our region, we certainly are constructively engaged with China and we share the view that we want to see China become a full participant in the rules based global order, including through forums like the G20 and in our own region the East Asia Summit.
We do have a longstanding defence cooperation between our two countries and a trilateral defence cooperation between our two countries and the United States. We've taken the opportunity of our discussions today to talk about furthering the bilateral defence cooperation between us and of course we will be working on a trilateral basis as the United States works its way through its Global Force Posture Review.
The Prime Minister and I at this point haven't had an opportunity to share perspectives on that Global Force Posture Review, but it's something I'm sure we will be able to discuss over our working dinner.
PRIME MINISTER KAN: With respect to the question about China, as Prime Minister Gillard mentioned just now, in the working dinner we would like to exchange our opinions with each other and also with respect to Australia, what sort of feeling I have on this question - a little more than 30 years ago I had a chance to visit Australia, I went and climbed Ayers Rock. Really, when I went there with a small interest, I thought the aircraft was slow that was the first time I felt that in my whole life, in others words it took quite a lot of time to get there. The country is blessed with good nature and also a good natured people and also you have a brave and bold people in Australia and in that visit I got to know that.
But as far as Japan is concerned, our relationship with Australia, at the grassroots level and other levels, I think Australia is one the most friendly countries in the world. I think many people judge most of the issues against this background.
I think basically we see eye to eye on most of the issues. When it comes to whaling, it is true that there are some differences of opinion, but because of this issue the entire bilateral relationship should not be eroded. So of course we have to share our thoughts frankly, but we have to be sure that it shouldn't be an impediment to our relationship.
So, Japan and Australia will establish a very strong relationship, as far as we exist, we'll establish a friendly relationship for five years, ten years, ten thousand years.