Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Roundtable Discussion with Japanese Business Executives on the CHIPS and Science Act

 Chief of Mission Residence
Tokyo, Japan 

10:19 A.M. JST

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, Mr. Ambassador.  And thank you for hosting this important conversation.  And it is good to meet with all of you, and I’m looking forward to our conversation.
 
As the Ambassador has said, this meeting emphasizes a very important point, which is the economic partnership between the United States and Japan is a longstanding one and an enduring one, both in terms of not only the history but our vision for the future for our respective countries in the world.
 
The CHIPS Act is a demonstration of the commitment of the United States, and our administration and President Biden, to ensure that we are moving forward, investing in innovation, investing in research and development, understanding that that is the way that we improve the human condition, that is the way that we discover and create the possibilities that we know we have to improve the way we do business, the way we live, to increase our accuracy, our effectiveness, our efficiency — the speed with which we do our work.  
 
And so I look forward to this conversation because our shared prosperity, Japan and the United States, relies on the partnership that we have, the collaboration and the cooperation that we have.
 
So many of these issues were highlighted during the pandemic in terms of what we also know to be the fractures and the fissures in our system, in particular as it relates to the supply chain.  Many of us talked about the weakness of the supply chain even before the pandemic.  It was almost predictable, but the pandemic brought it to the fore in a very vivid and clear way, which is that we have to diversify our reliance on essential supplies — Japan, the United States, and the world. 
 
We also understand on this issue that no one country can satisfy the globe’s demand.  But it is important that we who are allies partner and coordinate in a way that allows us to grow and in a way that allows us to function at a very practical level.  
 
As it relates to the CHIPS and Science Act, there are four categories that we highlight and that we will discuss today.
 
One, it will boost semiconductor manufacturing in the United States.  It will lower the cost of the products we use every day.  I think the citizens and the people of our countries rely on products without even knowing sometimes how reliant those products are on semiconductor chips.  They are the science behind the work of products like our smartphones and other things that we rely on every day. 
 
The CHIPS and Science Act will also, for the United States, do something that is very important to our administration and to the President, which is to create good-paying union jobs, to grow the workforce, and to grow the skills of the workforce in a way that will benefit all of society. 
 
And, four, the CHIPS Act will increase our ability to invest in innovation and develop new technologies.  We think of this as being a down payment on future American leadership as it relates to our ability to have the workforce and the skillsets to continue to invest in innovation and research and development.
 
We see Japan as playing a very important, critical role in our ability to do this work and to address the challenges that we face.
 
Japan and the United States share a commitment to work on resilient supply chains and to invest in forward-looking innovation.  On the supply chain issue, specifically in the early days of the pandemic, we recognized how we did not have a strong-enough and resilient-enough system to supply our basic needs.
 
On innovation, the long history that we share is a history of admiring the work of each of our nations but the collaboration and what it has done to allow our businesses to thrive and our nations to prosper.
 
So, given all of these interests, I am pleased to be a part of this convening today to bring us all together to have a direct conversation and to supply the leaders at this table with information that I believe will be helpful to your continuing interest and investment in the United States and to your continuing interest and investment in the alliance between the United States and Japan.
 
And as we know, this is about building inclusive economic growth in each of our countries and building resilience to prevent disruptions in the future.
 
So, again, I thank you all.  This convening highlights and is symbolic of the enduring alliance and relationship between our two nations. 
 
And again, thank you, Mr. Ambassador.
 
END                 10:24 A.M. JST