During the working visit to Tokyo, the President will focus on strengthening of bilateral political, economic and cultural relations between Lithuania and Japan. Meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Speaker of the House of Representatives Tadamori Oshima, and Chairman of Japan-Lithuania Friendship Diet Member’s League Hirofumi Nakason are scheduled.
At the meetings with public officials, the President will discuss bilateral relations, joint projects and their funding opportunities in the areas of energy and transport infrastructure. The President will look for ways to intensify trade relations between the countries, attract business investments from Japan, as well as strengthen ties between science and high-tech companies.
The visit will mainly focus on economic diplomacy. This is the second foreign visit where the President meets with the business community representatives who consider business development and investments in Lithuania.
The President will meet with representatives of Japan Business Federation Keidanren, leaders of major energy companies, Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Rakuten, Inc. (an e-commerce and financial technology company) and will open the Lithuanian-Japanese Business Forum by delivering a welcome address.
During the visit, the President will seek to strengthen cultural and scientific ties between Lithuania and Japan and will focus on raising Lithuania’s profile in the country of the rising sun. The President will visit the Chiune Sugihara Memorial Museum in Yaotsu, place flowers at the monument to the Japanese diplomat who worked in Kaunas and saved people during World War II. On the occasion of the President’s visit to Gifu, a memorial plaque will be unveiled.
The President will be awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Gifu, located in the heart of Japan. On this occasion, the President will give a lecture on Lithuania and Japan: The Way Forward and will meet with President of the University Hisataka Moriwaki as well as Hajime Furuta, Governor of Gifu Prefecture.
A separate agenda is set for the First Lady. The First Lady will visit a Tokyo School that fosters relations with Lithuania and Keio University, Center for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases, Hospital, and Medical Research and Development Agency.
The visit to Japan is planned as important anniversaries of bilateral relations are approaching: in 2020, the 120th birth anniversary of Chiune Sugihara will be marked and Lithuania proclaimed 2020 the year of Sugihara, in 2022, we will mark the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Japan.
The last time the President of Lithuania paid an official visit to Japan was in 2001.
