Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

246 • TRIPARTITE PACT
leaders in the private sector. Contributions from foundations and member
corporations form the financial basis of the commission.
Each region has its own commission, and the general assembly is
jointly operated by these three commissions. The general assembly is
held in each region in turn once a year. During the three-day session,
there are seminars on the political and economic conditions in the
three regions, reports and discussion of joint policy research by task
forces, panel discussions on current affairs, public lectures by opinion
leaders outside the three regions, and exchanges of opinions with
government officials of the host country. The contents are compiled
in a report and research papers are published as part of the “Triangle
Papers” series. Because of changes in the international situation and
the development of globalization, central European countries began
to join the Europe sector after the mid-1990s, Mexico joined North
America in 2000, and the Japan group was expanded to the Pacific
Asian group and Asian countries other than Japan joined this region
after 2000.
The headquarters of the Pacific Asian group are located in the
Japan Center for International Exchange, and Yotaro Kobayashi,
Chairman of the Board, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd., serves as its chairman.
The European group, including members from Austria, Belgium, the
Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany,
Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic
of Cyprus, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United
Kingdom, has a ceiling of 150 members. The ceiling for the North
American group is 110, including 15 Canadian members, 10 Mexican
members, and 85 U.S. members.
In 2000, the Japanese group of 85 members was expanded to become
a Pacific Asian group of 117 members, and includes 75 members from
Japan, 11 members from Korea, 7 from Australia and New Zealand, and
15 from the original five Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) members (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore,
and Thailand). The new Pacific Asian group also includes participants
from the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
TRIPARTITE PACT. The Tripartite Pact signed by Germany, Japan,
and Italy on 27 September 1940 was by any standard one of the greatest
failures in Japanese diplomacy. Long desired by the Imperial