3 Measures taken by the G8 Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting

  At the G8 Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting, G8 and European Union Ministers of Justice and the Interior, Ministers of Justice and Cabinet ministers in charge of the interior, etc. met to discuss common matters of concern with the focus on measures against transnational organized crime and Terrorism. When it first started being held in 1997 the main focus was on measures against transnational organized crime. Following the multi-concurrent terrorism acts that occurred in the U.S. on September 11, 2001, however, the Meeting took up counterterrorism measures as an agenda item at the conference in Mont Tremblant, Canada, held in 2002. The Meeting is now held every year in a G8 chair country about a month before the summit of the Group of Eight major powers (Group of Eight summit) and is positioned as a ministerial level conference related to the summit.
  The 2008 G8 Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting was held in June 2008 in Japan with the Minister of Justice and Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission as co-chairman with issues on the agenda including measures against international terrorism, ID-related crimes, countermeasures against drug crimes, establishment of a universal networking against transnational organized crime, capacity building assistance, and the fight against sexual exploitation of children. At the Meeting the focus was on measures taken by each G8 country in respective fields, with measures to facilitate international coordination and cooperation being discussed. It was agreed to further promote these measures. The results of discussion were compiled as two ministerial declarations, namely the “Concluding Declaration of the G8 Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting” and the “G8 Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Declaration on Capacity Building Assistance, and adopted.