Today was the all important day to promote trade between Japan and the UK as part of the State Visit of the Emperor.
It was a privilege to be part of the State Banquet and promote the links between our two countries.
The visit gives us a chance to reflect on the historic ties between the City, the UK and Japan, and to promote the City Corporation’s Memorandum of Understanding with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which is all part of our partnership in asset management and green finance. Japanese investment in the UK is very significant.
Japan is already our 5th largest investor with £92 billion invested in the UK, and our trade in goods and services was worth £27.7 billion last year - which is likely to be boosted further when the UK joins the regional CPTPP trade bloc.
We may be on opposite sides of the planet from one another, but as the Lord Mayor said we are similar in recognising the importance of our comparative advantages in ideas and innovations.
We are partners in the G7 and CPTPP, Japan and the UK are each other’s most important allies in Asia and Europe respectively. Japan was the first country the UK signed a Free Trade Agreement with when we left the European Union. The new Japan-UK global strategic partnership agreed by our Prime Ministers last year - ‘The Hiroshima Accord’ - will only deepen that relationship in areas like defence and renewable energy.
We are very fortunate to be friends with Japan
