Mr. Kimihiro Ishikane, Ambassador of Japan to ASEAN, visited ERIA on 12 March 2012. Mr. Hidetoshi Nishimura, Executive Director of ERIA, and some ERIA officials received Mr. Ishikane.

They exchanged views on ERIA's role of the establishing of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and the importance of ERIA's research activities, highlighting one of the major ERIA's research works, Mid-Term Review of the AEC Blueprint Implementation. Mr. Nishimura also updated about ERIA's contribution to the activities regarding SMEs such as APEN Vietnam Mission which was held in December 2011 in Hanoi.