Israel Japan | Business Guide | 2018

Israel-Japan > Business Guide > 2018 006 > Greetings > Embassy of Japan in Israel Yo Osumi Dear Readers, I ’m honored to have the opportunity to contribute to the Israel-Japan Business Guide,an essential publication dedicated to strengthening the business and economic relations between Japan and Israel.This issue is being presented to the readers in an auspicious year as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel. Japan and Israel have nurtured a strong bond in the past several decades.This partnership has been greatly boosted in recent years, following the mutual visits of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Japan in 2014 and of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Israel in 2015, which have set a new and dynamic tone of the strong friendship and business relationship. It is often said that Japanese companies have an advantage in everything related to high-quality manufacturing abilities, based on their technological know-how, while Israelis are known for their entrepreneurial capabilities and“out-of-the-box”thinking.With a strong commitment to hard work and rich complementarities, both peoples can learn from each other and work together for their respective economic and social developments and for the sake of the global community. Japanese domestic markets are reviving, thanks to the Prime Minister’s economic policy“Abenomics”.Upcoming Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020 is creating new demands for advanced technology such as cyber security, autonomous driving and others. We are witnessing expanding interests of Japanese companies in various other areas, such as life science, agriculture and even manufacturing.Not surprisingly at all,a“big wave”of senior business executives are coming from Japan to learn about the secrets of the“Start-Up Nation”.Some of them already began investing in Israeli cutting- edge technologies. To strengthen this trend, the Japan-Israel Investment Agreement was concluded and it entered into force in October 2017.This provides a stable legal framework and is expected to lead to a further boost of investments and the exchange of professional workforce between the countries. Against this background, the Embassy of Japan in Israel launched Japan Innovation Center “bizBridge” in Israel this year, in order to further strengthen support for Japanese companies and entrepreneurs. In tourism, Japan has become very popular for Israelis as we witness the rapid increase in the number of Israelis visiting Japan in recent years. I hope that this trend, along with the burgeoning business travelers, will enable a direct flight between Israel and Japan – a strong aspiration for all working to enhance the bilateral relationship. In May 2018, Prime Minister Abe made his second official visit to Israel,with distinguished business leaders from Japan which was a huge success.This visit reconfirmed our joint success of the past years as well as setting sight on further steps forward.I’m convinced that there will be more success stories and the Israel- Japan community will further flourish in the future. Yo Osumi Minister DCM,Embassy of Japan to Israel Director, Japan Innovation Center “bizBridge” in Israel