A The 61st Japan-Australia Joint Business Conference for businesses from the two countries to discuss trading and investment would be held in Aichi prefecture on Thursday and Friday with the main theme, "New Beginnings: Australia-Japan Partnership on the global stage." Further, panelists from the Philippines and Indonesia were invited to the event this time in order to deepen partnership with Southeast Asia. According to the Australia-Japan Business Co-operation Committee (AJBCC), the organizer of the event, about 500 people would attend the event, the highest in the history.

Australia is the biggest exporter of LNG to Japan. In 2023, Australia exported 27.61 mil mt of LNG to Japan, which accounted for 41.8% of the total import volume of Japan at 66.10 mil mt. As the strong connection especially in the LNG business between the two countries shows, Mr. Michiaki Hirose, the former chairman of Tokyo Gas Co Ltd, acts as the chairperson of the AJBCC and Mr. Kingo Hayashi, the CEO of Chubu Electric Power Co, was scheduled to give a special speech on the event on Thursday. Tokyo Gas and JERA, which covers procurement of fuels for thermal power plants of Chubu Electric, receive 5.50 mil mt and 10.00 mil mt of LNG annually, respectively, from Australia. On top of that, Japan and Australia were now trying to jointly develop Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) technology to capture CO2 and store it in the ground. Thus, a panel discussion for net-zero would take place in the conference this time.

Prior to the event, Mr. Hirose said, "We would like to make use of the meeting as a forum to confirm that efforts to achieve carbon neutrality will lead to new business opportunities for both countries, on the assumption that existing energy-related transactions between the two countries will remain stable in the future," adding, "We look forward to the further strengthening of exchanges between our two countries through energy through continued bilateral dialogue."