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The President: Konnichiwa.
Please sit down.
Thank you so much.
Well, I want to thank Dr. Mohri and everyone
at The Miraikan for welcoming me here today.
And it is wonderful to see
all of these outstanding students.
Dr. Mohri is a veteran of two space shuttle
missions, embodies the spirit that brings us here
together -- the incredible cooperation in science
and technology between Japan and the United States.
I want to thank all the students that
I had a chance to meet with as we went around
the various exhibits.
We heard a message from
the international space station.
We saw some truly amazing robots --
although I have to say the robots were a little scary.
They were too lifelike.
They were amazing.
And these students showed me some
of their experiments, including some soccer-playing
robots that we just saw.
And all of the exhibits I think showed
the incredible breakthroughs in technology and science
that are happening every single day.
And historically, Japan and the United States
have been at the cutting-edge of innovation.
From some of the first modern calculators decades
ago to the devices that we hold in our hands today --
the smartphones that I'm sure every young person
here uses -- Japan and the United States have
often led the way in the innovations that change
our lives and improve our lives.
And that's why I'm so pleased that the
United States and Japan are renewing the 10-year
agreement that makes so much of our science
and technology cooperation possible.
Both of our societies celebrate innovation,
celebrate science, celebrate technology.
We're close partners
in the industries of tomorrow.
And it reminds us why it's so important
for us to continue to invest in science,
technology, math, engineering.
These are the schools -- these are the skills that
students like all of you are going to need
for the global economy, and that includes
our talented young women.
Historically, sometimes young women have
been less represented in the sciences,
and one of the things that I've really been pushing for
is to make sure that young women,
just like young men, are getting trained in these fields,
because we need all the talent and brainpower to solve some
of the challenges that we're going
to face in the future.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Abe and
I announced a new initiative to increase student
exchanges, including bringing more
Japanese students to the United States.
So I hope you'll come.
Welcome.
And it's part of our effort to double
students exchanges in the coming years.
As we saw today, young people like you have
at your fingertips more technology and more power
than even the greatest innovators
in previous generations.
So there's no limit to what you can achieve,
and the United States of America wants
to be your partner.
So I'm very proud to have been here today.
I was so excited by what I saw.
The young people here were incredibly impressive.
And as one of our outstanding astronauts
described, as we just are a few days after
Earth Day, it's important when we look at this globe
and we think about how technology has allowed
us to understand the planet that we share,
and to understand not only the great possibilities
but also the challenges and dangers from things
like climate change -- that your generation is going
to help us to find answers to some of the questions
that we have to answer.
Whether it's: How do we feed more people
in an environment in which it's getting warmer?
How do we make sure that we're coming up with new
energy sources that are less polluting
and can save our environment?
How do we find new medicines that can cure
diseases that take so many lives around the globe?
To the robots that we saw that can save people's
lives after a disaster because they
can go into places like Fukushima that it may
be very dangerous for live human beings to enter into.
These are all applications,
but it starts with the imaginations and the
vision of young people like you.
So I'm very proud of all of you and glad to see
that you're doing such great work.
You have counterparts in the United States
who share your excitement
about technology and science.
I hope you get a chance to meet them.
I hope you get a chance to visit the United States.
As far as I know, we don't have one of those cool
globes, but we have some other pretty neat things
in the United States as well.
And I hope we can share those with you if and when
you come.
Thank you very much.
And I just want you to know in closing that I
really believe that each of you
can make a difference.
Gambatte kudasai.
You can do this thing if you apply yourselves.
Thank you.
(applause)