Tokyo (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron, visiting Tokyo for the opening of the Olympic Games, met with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Saturday and met several major Japanese bosses, while taking the time to attend sporting events .
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Macron and Suga, who spoke in the neo-baroque Akasaka palace in the heart of Tokyo, did not comment to the press.
But on Twitter, Mr. Macron praised the "exceptional" partnership between France and Japan.
“At a time when we are all fighting against the virus, when we are starting to relaunch, this partnership is a strength”.
They also spoke of Franco-Japanese cooperation in the fight against global warming, which is "not a constraint but a vector of innovation and job creation", and wished to "strengthen" economic and commercial ties. between the two countries.
Mr. Macron also met in the afternoon several leaders of large Japanese companies, including the CEO of Nissan Makoto Uchida, as if to definitively turn the page on the Carlos Ghosn affair, which had strained bilateral relations by 2018-2019.
He also saw one-on-one the founder and CEO of Rakuten, Hiroshi Mikitani, then the CEO of the automotive giant Toyota, Akio Toyoda.
There were no investment announcements but discussions on projects still "confidential", said the Elysee.
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- "Tragic situation" by M. Fichot -
With Mr. Suga, Mr. Macron also discussed the thorny case of Vincent Fichot, a 39-year-old Frenchman living in Japan who has been on a hunger strike for two weeks near the Olympic stadium in Tokyo to demand the return of his two children. , abducted by their Japanese mother in 2018.
Since the principle of shared custody in the event of separation does not legally exist in Japan, parental abductions are common there and tolerated by local authorities, despite international commitments on children's rights ratified by Tokyo.
Mr. Suga "agreed to our requests, that is to say to resume the dialogue as soon as possible (on the case of Mr. Fichot, Editor's note) in order to find results in this extremely tragic situation", assured Saturday the Elysee.
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"We will continue to push, with the Europeans", so that such situations "of distress, which are particularly trying, painful for our nationals, can find a happy outcome", again assured the presidency.
"It's really a priority."
Advisers to Mr. Macron had visited Mr. Fichot on Thursday, while the president abstained from him, although he had met him in 2019 in Tokyo and had already promised to act at the time.
Until the end, Mr. Fichot and his entourage had hoped for a visit in person from Mr. Macron, who flew shortly before 9 p.m. Japanese time (12 p.m. GMT) to French Polynesia.
"It's a big disappointment," François Roussel, an adviser to French nationals abroad elected for Japan, told AFP.
"The way to mobilize Japanese public opinion on this subject was for (Mr. Macron) to come and see him today."
"There is nothing new" on the side of the Elysee, also lamented Mr. Fichot, whose health begins to decline but who still wants to continue his action: "I stay".
On the Olympic side, in the morning, the president attended the fight of the French judokate Shirine Boukli (category of -48 kg), initially beaten by the Serbian Milica Nikolic, then in the evening at the match of the Blue in 3x3 basketball, who lost to the Americans, also in the presence of the First Lady of the United States Jill Biden.
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On Friday, Mr. Macron said that Japan had "been right to maintain" the Olympics despite the pandemic and that France was "on the job" to prepare for Paris-2024.
© 2021 AFP