U.S. and Japan Sign Aviation Safety Agreement

April 27, 2009

The U.S. and Japanese governments signed a Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA) and associated implementation procedures today in Tokyo that will allow for the reciprocal certification of aircraft and aviation products. The agreement addresses areas such as airworthiness certification, environmental testing and approvals, and technical assistance.

U.S. Embassy Charge d'Affairs ad interim James P. Zumwalt signed the agreement on behalf of the U.S. Government. Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Hirofumi Nakasone signed on behalf of the Japanese Government. Signing the BASA Implementation Procedures for Airworthiness were U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Acting Assistant Administrator for International Aviation Dorothy Reimold and Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) Engineering Department Director-General Toru Miyashita.

The FAA and JCAB have worked closely for several years to ensure our respective technical expertise and procedures for airworthiness certification meet the high standards we each set for aviation safety. It is important because under the scope of this new agreement, the FAA will be able to accept standard aircraft parts and certain aircraft designs from Japanese manufacturers and JCAB will be able to do the same from U.S. manufacturers.