[Provisional Translation]

On Saturday, April 21, Mr. Yoshihiko Noda, the Prime Minister of Japan, held a meeting with H.E. Mr. Thein Sein, President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar at the State Guest House in Tokyo for approximately 60 minutes from 5:30 p.m. An overview of the meeting is as follows:

1. General Issues
   Prime Minister Noda welcomed President Thein Sein's visit to Japan stating that this was the first visit in 28 years by the head of state of Myanmar. Moreover, Prime Minister Noda expressed his respect to President Thein Sein for vigorously promoting democratization, national reconciliation, and economic reforms in the past one year, highly regarded that the legislature by-election held this April was another important step, and stated that he would like to exchange views on a wide range of issues concerning strengthening of the framework for bilateral cooperation to construct a strong basis for future Japan-Myanmar relations.
   In response, President Thein Sein stated that this visit to Japan was a very good opportunity to open a new page of the history of Japan-Myanmar relations and expressed his gratitude for Japan's past support and cooperation.
   Subsequently, Prime Minister Noda highly regarded the steady results made by reforms in Myanmar and at the same time stated his recognition that the people of Myanmar are seeking specific fruits of the economic reforms and that the Government of Myanmar is facing a critical period of its promotion of reforms. Moreover, Prime Minister Noda expressed his expectation toward progress in reconciliation with ethnic minorities and further democratization and stated that under such circumstances, Japan would like to share views with President Thein Sein on implementation of some new approaches by Japan to strengthen bilateral relations to further support President Thin Sein's efforts for reforms.
   In response, President Thein Sein explained that the Government of Myanmar had made efforts toward guaranteeing the rights of its people and toward national reconciliation and that while trying to improve people's lives, the Government of Myanmar also pays attention to the environment. Further, the President stated that democratization made progress to some extent in Myanmar, and that the Government of Myanmar has been promoting the participation of every strata of the society in politics and that such promotion had already been partially realized.
   
   
2. Economic Cooperation
   Prime Minister Noda stated his idea of fundamentally revising the policy on economic cooperation to Myanmar to implement a wide range of cooperation centered around three issues: support for improvement of people's lives, support for improvement of capacity building, development of systems and institutions to sustain the economy and society, and support for improvement of infrastructure and related systems necessary for sustainable economic development. Moreover, Prime Minister Noda welcomed that both countries reached a common understanding on how to address Myanmar's debt issue.
   
   
3. Economic Relations
   Prime Minister Noda welcomed the exchange of Memorandum of Intent which defined the formulation of an overall project for development of Thilawa as a joint operation by Japan and Myanmar and stated that both the government and private sectors of Japan would like to work for this project, in close coordination with the Myanmar side. Moreover, Prime Minister Noda stated that Japanese enterprises are highly interested in investing in mineral and energy development, in addition to manufacturing and agriculture, and that in order to promote investment from private sectors, development and appropriate operation of the legal system and its further transparency are necessary. Prime Minister Noda then requested the Government of Myanmar to make efforts for revision of the Foreign Investment Law and development of the Special Economic Zone Law and expressed his wish to accelerate the discussion on an investment agreement between the two countries.
   In response, President Thein Sein expressed his gratitude for Japan's investment and further support again and stated his expectation for future cooperation.
   
   
4. Cultural/Sport Exchanges
   Prime Minister Noda stated his expectation that both Japan and Myanmar would make efforts for the success of the dispatch of a cultural/sports exchange mission from Japan, the dates being readjusted. Moreover, Prime Minister Noda stated that the members of the mission are leading figures in their respective fields and are very influential in Japan and that he expected President Thein Sein's cooperation for the mission.
   In response, President Thein Sein stated that Myanmar would host the Southeast Asian Games in 2013 and would like to take this as a good opportunity for Myanmar to raise the level of its sports.
   
   
5. Human Exchanges
   Prime Minister Noda stated that strengthening of human exchanges is also important and that he would like to invite young political party members to Japan, in addition to the Minister for Railways and the Minister for National Planning and Economic Development. Moreover, Prime Minister Noda stated that he would like to continue the 400-person scale invitation of students and trainees from Myanmar every year in the future as well and expressed his wish that the human resources who had already been developed thus far would support the nation building of Myanmar and bilateral relations.
   In response, President Thein Sein stated that development of human resources is important for the nation and introduced that Mr. Mya Aye, Minister for Education, had studied in Japan and that human exchanges and development of human resources between Myanmar and Japan had already begun to bring results.
   
   
6. Death of Mr. Kenji Nagai
   Concerning the death of Mr. Nagai, Prime Minister Noda requested a positive approach by the Government of Myanmar, mentioning the request for an explanation of the situation of the investigation and the investigation results that Mr. Koichiro Gemba, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, had made upon his visit to Myanmar last December.
   
   
7. International Situations
   Both leaders exchanged opinions on issues such as North Korea, as in the discussion on international situations in the Mekong-Japan Summit Meeting held in the morning the same day.