And good morning, everyone.

As you've heard, my name's Susan Jones, and I'm the Education and Research Counselor based at the Australian Embassy in Tokyo.

I'm honoured to represent the Australian Government and the Australian Japan Foundation on this important occasion.

Today's symposium is a valuable opportunity for emerging leaders from Australia and Japan to engage in a meaningful dialogue on issues that deeply matter to both our nations. Also, on a personal level, I'm quite new in my role, and this has been my first opportunity to attend a symposium such as this.

And coming from the Department of Education in Australia, we play a really important role in having youth-led policy and hearing the voices of young people. So, it's a really exciting opportunity for me as well, to hear all the views from our distinguished speakers and to hear the discussions that come from today.

Inclusion and diversity are priorities that Australia and Japan share. Australia is proud to be one of the most multicultural countries in the world, and home to the world's oldest continuing culture. The culture and history of Australia's Indigenous peoples stretch back over 60,000 years, and this plays an important part in how we've shaped modern Australia. The cultures in Australia are modern, diverse, resilient, and central to our national identity.

They have a rich history and heritage that sits alongside the vibrant, modern, multicultural society. Our diversity is not only a defining feature of who we are, it is a source of strength and vitality.

We believe progress happens when everyone has a seat at the table, regardless of gender, ability, background, or age. So this is a really important time that we hear the young voices shape new policies.

The Australian Government particularly realises how important it is to have young people involved in quality meetings. We have a dedicated office for youth, that sits in my department, which explicit role is to ensure that young people have a say on issues that matter to them.

Through a range of programs, young people have been working alongside government departments and agencies to positively influence the work that the government is doing.

This is one where in Australia we see youth-led cultural collaboration, which has a direct impact on creating inclusive and resilient societies. We've seen in Japan, too, that they are making significant efforts to promote gender equality, youth voices, and accessibility. The concept of Tabunka Kyozon, multicultural coexistence, is a term being used across Japan more and more these days.

This is something that we have in common, how we all work together and bring together our societies for the better of everyone as global citizens.

The themes you explore today are therefore not only timely, but essential to building societies that work for everybody.

Strong and resilient societies remind us of the strength of the Australia and Japan partnership. It is a relationship built on trust, shared values, and a commitment to creating inclusive societies.

Next year marks a special milestone.  Of this event. It is the 50th anniversary of the basic Treaty of Cooperation and Friendship between Australia and Japan.

This laid the foundation for the strong relationship between our countries today, and one of the important roles that the Australian Embassy will play, that Australia and Japan Foundation will play, that I will play, and hopefully in some ways that we will all play, is celebrating this strong and important relationship.

As things change around the world—as they always will—the partnership between Australia and Japan is something our government looks to as a sign of shared interests and strong cooperation.

The Australian-Japan Foundation, which is supporting this project, will also celebrate its 50th anniversary. It's Australia's oldest cultural council, and it has been long dedicated to building people-to-people links.

Through the program, it fosters mutual understanding in education of science, technology, and the art. Exchanges like today are the building block of the friendship and collaboration that will shape the future of our bilateral relationship.

We often talk about how, even though this is a government-to-government relationship that we are celebrating, it is underpinned by strong people-to-people connections. In my role as Education and Research Counsellor, I see how initiatives that begin in a room like this today can lead to some of our strongest future collaborations between people in Australia and Japan. We see it in industry, we see it in future research partnerships, and in our shared values.

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So, one day, you may be reflecting on when you attended this symposium, or you had the opportunity to come, to Japan and see that the friendships and relationships that you built have led to something that really contributes to our country's national security, or economic security, or something that just promotes our shared values.

So, I would like to thank Tohoku University for hosting us today, and the University of Sydney for its strong contributions to this project, supported by the Australia–Japan Foundation.

I look forward to hearing the productive ideas and discussions today, and I hope to have the chance to speak with some of you outside the session as well. I would also be very happy to continue conversations with you, answer questions, or discuss ideas further.

Thank you very much for having us, and I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

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