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Japan: Cooperation based on long-standing partnership
Plattform Industrie 4.0 and the Robot Revolution & Industrial IoT Initiative (RRI) have been working together intensively since 2016. Their common goal is to strengthen competitiveness through Industrie 4.0 in both countries and to achieve a smooth transition to digital production.
The German-Japanese partnership focuses on cyber security, international standardisation and a mutual exchange on digital business models. It also looks closely at how to promote SMEs, shares best practices on work, education and training and supports research projects (e.g. through exchange with the Plattform Industrie 4.0’s research advisory board). RRI also shares Industry 4.0 application examples from Japan with the German Plattform (RRI map). The cooperation between these two initiatives is closely linked to the German-Japanese cooperation on standardization of Industrie 4.0 und IIoT via the Standardisation Council Industrie 4.0 (SCI 4.0).
Background
In February 2016, Plattform Industrie 4.0 and the Robot Revolution & Industrial IoT Initiative had their first intensive discussion. Subsequently, they announced a joint action plan at the 2016 Hannover Messe. The following year, cooperation was further deepened at CeBIT and again highlighted in the Hannover Declaration (2017) between the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC). In October 2018, Peter Altmaier, Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy, travelled to Japan. During the visit, a memorandum of understanding between the BMWi, METI and MIC reaffirmed the cooperation between the two countries on the digitalisation of industry. In addition to the expert groups, important pillars of the cooperation are the annual German-Japanese Business Forum at the Hannover Messe, joint contributions at trade fairs, as well as mutual involvement in important events of the two platforms. Over the years, the partners have published various publications.