Speech by President Lula at closing of Brazil-Japan Business Forum

Mr. Shigeru Ishiba, Prime Minister of Japan, on whose behalf I greet all the Japanese authorities present here. My dear Tatsuo Yasunaga, CEO of Mitsui and Director of the Brazil-Japan Committee; Senator Davi Alcolumbre, president of the Brazilian National Congress [Congresso Nacional] and Federal Senate [Senado Federal]; Congressman Hugo Motta, president of the Chamber of Deputies [Câmara dos Deputados], on whose behalf I greet all the Brazilian congresspeople who are here. Ambassador Mauro Vieira, minister of Foreign Affairs, on whose behalf I greet all the Brazilian ministers here.

My dear Márcio Elias Rosa, executive secretary of the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade, and Services [Ministério do Desenvolvimento, Indústria e Comércio e Serviços /MDIC], who is here representing our Vice President and Minister Geraldo Alckmin. Our dear Tarciana Medeiros, president of the Bank of Brazil [Banco do Brasil]. My dear Jorge Vieira, president of APEX Brasil. Eduardo Eugenio Gouvêa Vieira, vice president of the National Industry Confederation [Confederação Nacional da Indústria /CNI], through whom I greet the Brazilian businesspeople.

Today is a happy day and a sad day for me. I am happy because I am in Japan, a country with which Brazil has maintained diplomatic relations for 130 years, and that has a great deal of responsibility in Brazil's current stage of development in industry, technology, and agriculture. We Brazilians can never forget what Japan did in the Brazilian Cerrado, creating an extraordinary revolution so that Brazil could become one of the most important agricultural countries exporting food. And I am sad because Brazil lost 4-1 to Argentina in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup — and also because they thought I was short and put a bench here to make me taller, but I am not that short.

Well, my friends,

When I ran for president for the third time, I said that it was important to bring Brazil back to political normality and democratic civility. At that time I said that political stability was necessary —and it is represented here by the presence of the president of the Chamber of Deputies and the president of the Senate and several congresspeople, including my colleague Rodrigo Pacheco, former president of the Senate, and Arthur Lira, former president of the Chamber of Deputies.

I said that we must achieve economic stability — and, in the first two years of my government, Brazil grew, surprising the world, because the forecast for Brazil's growth was 0.8% in 2023 but we grew 3.2%. The forecast was for growth of 1.5% in 2024, and we grew 3.4%. I can assure Prime Minister Ishiba that we will grow more in 2025 because I believe that Brazil needs to leave the hall of developing countries and finally become a developed country.

Legal stability. In an extraordinary way, we approved a tax reform policy that had been expected in Brazil for over 40 years. This policy was approved with the full support of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies so that we could ensure that foreign investors and Brazilians were given greater ease and legal stability. That is the reason for my happiness.

We also promised to ensure social stability, and that is why we have implemented the most important social inclusion policy in the history of Brazil, and the most important credit policy in the history of Brazil.

I can safely say, Prime Minister Ishiba, that never before in the history of Brazil has so much credit been made available to the poorest people, to workers, and also to big businessmen and agribusiness, because the Bank of Brazil is once again taking decisive action; and because the Brazilian Development Bank [Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social /BNDES] is once again taking decisive action; and because the Caixa Econômica Federal bank is once again taking decisive action.

I believe it is important that Japanese business leaders hear my theory. I have been saying that a lot of money in the hands of a few means maintaining poverty — and a little money in the hands of many means income distribution, it means wealth distribution. This is what is making our country grow, through the most important job creation policy that we have ever implemented in the country, the largest infrastructure investment policy that Brazil has ever known. I want to invite the Japanese to invest in Brazil, because Brazil is a safe haven, as it was for the Japanese in 1908. In 2025 we want to attract partnerships, joint ventures, and Japanese investments in our country. I remember that in 2008 I met several Japanese business leaders in Brazil who, at the time, said they were going to blend 3% ethanol into gasoline, but it did not happen. Europe promised 10%, but it did not happen. And now, when Japan says it is possible to blend 10%, I believe it and hope it happens because it will be a climate change revolution in our country. I also said that it we needed to guarantee predictability to investors. No one can be caught off guard by changes in laws, decrees, or ordinances every single day. The rules of the game need to be established in the same way as the rules of a soccer championship. Everyone has to know what is going to happen so that no one suffers setbacks due to actions by governments, which often act irresponsibly, without taking into account the respect we have for workers, businesspeople, and politicians in Brazil.

That is why I also brought a delegation of five union members with me—and this is one of the few times that I have traveled and that we have had a meeting between Brazilian and Japanese unions.

So, my friends, I am happy because we are consolidating a new relationship strategy with Japan. We want to sell and we want to buy — but, above all, we want to share alliances between Japanese companies and Brazilian companies so that we can grow together.

That said, I would like to tell you all that, 50 years ago, I visited Japan for the first time at the invitation of Toyota workers.

On my current, fifth visit, I have come back accompanied by ministers, members of parliament, businesspeople and union members to deepen our social, economic and political ties. We will sign 10 cooperation agreements in a wide range of fields, in addition to almost 80 instruments between companies, banks, universities, and other institutions.

However, there remains an important challenge. Our bilateral trade has declined in recent years. It fell from USD 17 billion in 2011 to USD 11 billion in 2024. Something is not going well in our relationship, and it needs to be improved.

This Business Forum is an opportunity to reverse this decline. In an increasingly complex world, it is essential that historical partners come together to face the uncertainties and instabilities of the global economy. I am certain that we need to move forward with the signing of an economic partnership agreement between Japan and Mercosur.

Our countries have more to gain from integration than from resorting to protectionist practices. Maintaining the reciprocal exemption of business and tourist visas between Brazil and Japan is an essential step in this direction. The future of our relationship also depends on increased investment.

Brazil will continue to defy the World Bank's projections. In the last two years, our GDP has exceeded expectations and grown by more than 3%. In 2025, we will surprise the world once again, and we want to surprise it in partnership with Japan.

We approved a historic tax reform that will simplify processes, reduce costs, and offer greater predictability and efficiency to businesses. We are correcting injustices in Income Tax to benefit millions of Brazilians, increasing household consumption and keeping the economy moving.

Through the Cerrado Agricultural Development Program [Programa de Desenvolvimento Agrícola do Cerrado/PRODECER], Japan helped transform the productivity in the Brazilian Central-west region. Today we are the world's fourth largest food producer. Brazil also has a strong, broad industrial park that is integrated into the international market.

EMBRAER has become the third-largest manufacturer of commercial jets in the world, with an important market here in Japan. ANA, the largest Japanese airline, announced and reached an agreement today to purchase up to 20 E-190 jets from EMBRAER. I can assure Prime Minister Ishiba that EMBRAER aircraft are of the highest quality. Whoever buys 20 can buy a few more, and perhaps all Japanese companies can fly on EMBRAER aircraft.

Japanese participation in Brazilian industry has a long history, especially in the automotive sector. Brazil was the destination of Toyota's first unit outside Japan back in 1958. Last week, I visited one of Toyota's factories in Brazil, when the company announced an investment of over USD 2 billion by 2030. Honda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi will also expand their presence in the Brazilian market. This will boost the production of electric and hybrid vehicles capable of operating with any blend of ethanol and gasoline. In line with the legislation approved in Congress regarding the Fuel of the Future [Combustível do Futuro] program, Brazil will increase the percentage of ethanol in gasoline from 27% to 30% — and in diesel we will reach 20% by 2030. It is very positive that, with its Strategic Energy Plan, Japan will increase the percentage of bioethanol to up to 10% by 2030 and up to 20% from 2040 onwards. Decarbonization is not a choice, it is a necessity and a great opportunity. The involvement of the private sector in this goal is simply essential. Brazil will always be an ally in reducing global dependence on fossil fuels.

Renewable sources represent 50% of the energy matrix and more than 90% of the Brazilian electricity matrix. We will continue to lead the just transition. In November, Brazil will host COP30 in the heart of the Amazon and I hope that Prime Minister Ishiba will attend it, to come into contact with the heart of the Amazon—which everyone talks about but which few people know.

We are going to hold the most important COP of all COPs, with great responsibility, with great serenity, with less jingoism, and with a more serious debate about controlling the warming of Planet Earth,—which we know cannot exceed one and a half degrees.

This is no joke; it is not a scientific overstatement: it is a reality that is happening all over the planet — and we must take into account that, at some point in this country and in this world, the Kyoto Protocol was not respected; some are failing to discuss the Paris Agreement; the Copenhagen Agreement in 2009 was not fulfilled because the rich countries committed to giving USD 100 billion a year so that we could keep the forests standing, and this commitment has not been fulfilled until now.

It is important to remember that a standing forest is very beautiful, but that under each tree there is a worker, an Indigenous person, an extractor, a rubber tapper, a rural worker. If we want to keep forests standing, we need to provide sustainability so that these people can live and have access to the material goods that everyone wants to have in every country in the world.

We have already presented our NDCs and are leading a global ethical assessment to raise climate ambition towards Belém. We will eliminate deforestation in the Amazon by 2030 and strengthen the fight against all types of transnational crimes in partnership with our neighbors. In 2024, we achieved the largest drop in Amazon deforestation in the last 15 years.

We are promoting social, economic, legal, environmental, and political stability that consolidates Brazil as an excellent option for investors.

Dear friends, my dear Prime Minister,

I wish Japan every success in holding the Expo 2025 in Osaka; our APEX will be in Japan for six months to hold debates and demonstrate what Brazil is capable of doing. At the same time, this fair is expected to attract millions and millions of people from all over the world, and we Brazilians want to be there to show the world a part of Brazil.

We will take advantage of Expo 2025 to present a sustainable, diverse, and prosperous Brazil to the world. I will leave Japan tomorrow feeling confident that we are on the right track, honoring our common history and writing new chapters in this long and successful journey.

My dear friend Ishiba,

I would like to end my speech by saying that three concerns should guide all presidents, all prime ministers, and all democratic peoples of the world. We must first fight hard for democracy. Democracy is at risk on the planet, with the election of a denialist far-right that does not even recognize vaccines, climate instability, or political parties, unions, and other things. Denying politics will not bring any benefit to humanity. In fact, denialists do not even want to comply with the Kyoto Protocol.

The second thing we need to defend very well and very strongly is free trade. We cannot go back to defending protectionism. We do not want a second Cold War. What we want is free trade so that we can definitively establish our countries in the movement of democracy, economic growth, and wealth distribution.

Another thing we cannot forget, Prime Minister, is the maintenance of multilateralism. The relationship among countries is very important. The political relationship is very important. The relationship among universities is very important. The exchange of scientific and technological experiences is very important. The relationship among unions is very important. The relationship among political parties is very important. And, above all, the relationship among peoples is very important. Because we do not want any more walls. We do not want another Cold War. We no longer want to be prisoners of ignorance. We want to be free and beholden only to freedom.

Therefore, I send a hug to the Japanese people, and to its businesspeople.

And a big hug to Prime Minister Ishiba.

Thank you very much.