After the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Karuizawa, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani returned to Tokyo for a series of meetings on economic cooperation between Italy and Japan.
At the Italian Embassy, the Deputy Prime Minister received Seiji Izumisawa, CEO of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of the world’s leading industrial groups, operating in a wide range of traditional sectors, from defence to automotive, aerospace, robotics, nuclear, and renewable energy. The talks focused on the collaboration that Mitsubishi has already begun with Italy’s Leonardo and Britain’s Baes on the “Gcap”, the sixth-generation military fighter. IIzumisawa also pointed out that Mitsubishi has long been present in Italy through its subsidiary Turboden, a leading company in the design, manufacture, and maintenance of systems that generate electricity and heat from sources such as biomass, geothermal energy, solar energy, traditional fuels and waste heat from industrial processes. “Italy has a strong interest in strengthening economic and industrial cooperation with Japan and its most successful companies,” Tajani added, stressing that “the fact that Mitsubishi’s CEO has recently taken over the chairmanship of the Italy-Japan Business Group shows how positively the major industrial group views the opportunities offered by our country”.
In the evening, Minister Tajani met Yasutoshi Nishimura, Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry. This meeting is the first operational follow-up to the definition of a strategic partnership between Italy and Japan, agreed upon at the Rome summit on 10 January between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. “We want to intensify and organise new industrial cooperation in the fields of energy, space, defence, and start-ups,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs. “We are particularly interested in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, robotics, life sciences and nanosciences, and pharmaceuticals”.
Trade between Italy and Japan is growing: EUR 13.2 bn in 2022 (+11.2%). The trade balance is positive (EUR 2.8 billion): EUR 8 bn in exports (+7.1%) and EUR 5.2 bn in imports (+18%). In 2021, the stock of Italian FDI in Japan will amount to EUR 1.9 bn.
