Japan and Canada Roadmap Targets Small Modular Reactor Cooperation

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney flew into Tokyo on Friday, March 6, for his first visit to Japan since taking office, and the summit he held that evening with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi produced something the nuclear industry had reason to notice: an official roadmap that names small modular reactors by name.

The Canada-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Roadmap, published on the Japan Kantei website, commits both governments to "enhance cooperation on clean energy technologies, including nuclear technologies (particularly small modular reactors), hydrogen and its derivatives, carbon capture, utilization, and storage, renewables, and energy-efficient industrial processes." That parenthetical is significant. Roadmap language at this level of bilateral diplomacy rarely singles out a specific reactor category; placing SMRs explicitly inside a head-of-government joint document signals that both governments regard them as a near-term policy priority rather than a distant aspiration.

The roadmap channels that commitment through the existing Japan-Canada Energy Policy Dialogue, directing it "with a focus on long-term stability and sustainability, to broaden and deepen cooperation in the field of energy, continue cooperation on energy policy, diversify energy resources, and expand trade and investment to support secure energy supply chains." Conventional fuels are not sidelined: the document separately calls for advancing "collaboration on conventional energy, including liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas," and the Yomiuri Shimbun noted the two countries will also promote cooperation to "secure stable import routes for crude oil, LNG and other energy supplies."

The nuclear cooperation language carries an explicit non-proliferation dimension. The Kantei text links enhanced cooperation on nuclear technologies to "the current security environment, including in the context of the upcoming 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons," tying commercial technology ambitions directly to the multilateral arms-control calendar.

Beyond energy, the roadmap spans five additional areas. On defence and technology, the two governments committed to fully utilizing the Security of Information Agreement, pursuing an implementing arrangement for defence industrial security, and working toward bringing into force the Defense Equipment and Technology Transfer Agreement. The Yomiuri Shimbun reported the draft statement also establishes a new vice-minister-level dialogue on economic security, with a first meeting targeted before the end of 2026, and launches a new cyber dialogue among relevant agencies. Discussions aimed at future negotiations on a Reciprocal Access Agreement, which would define the legal status of Self-Defense Forces personnel and Canadian troops operating in each other's country, are also set to begin. The Yomiuri piece noted that economic security concerns were framed explicitly around "all forms of economic coercion," with China's tighter export restrictions on critical minerals clearly in view.

Food security rounds out the picture. Canada formally reaffirmed its commitment to "remaining a reliable food security partner for Japan including by being as a predictable supplier of safe, high-quality agricultural products," with the bilateral Agriculture Dialogue designated as the mechanism for streamlining import processes and stabilizing agricultural trade.

No funding figures, named SMR vendors, or project timelines appear anywhere in the roadmap text, leaving the hard engineering and commercial questions for subsequent rounds of the Energy Policy Dialogue. What the document does establish is a formal governmental framework that puts SMR cooperation on the same priority shelf as LNG supply chains and defence intelligence sharing, at a moment when both countries are navigating the same set of geopolitical pressures heading into the 2026 NPT Review Conference.