Toshiba, Toyota, Hitachi, and Fujitsu met with Israeli high-tech companies

The Manufacturers' Association hosted Japanese companies and giant corporations that want to do business with Israel this week. The Japanese companies arrive in Israel as part of a delegation headed by the Japanese Minister of Commerce, including a senior representative of the Canadian organization, the Federation of Economic Organizations in Japan.
The members of the delegation came with the declared goal of discovering Israeli innovation and advanced Israeli technologies and harnessing them for cooperation and joint success with the Japanese giant industries.
The delegation is headed by a senior member of the international company, Nifon, Hiromishi Shinawara. The meeting discussed various ways to promote and encourage cooperation between the Israeli business sector and the Japanese business sector as part of the Association's efforts to develop new trade markets for its members, With an emphasis on Asian countries.
During the visit, B2B meetings were held between Japanese companies and Israeli industrial companies. Among the giant Japanese corporations that came to the meeting are names that are well known to the Israeli public, including international technology giants such as Toshiba, Toyota, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Nippon and others. These Japanese companies met mainly with Israeli technology, high-tech and biotech companies such as Elbit, Vortex, Bio-Dalia, Grove Ventures and others.
The relationship between Israel and Japan has grown significantly in recent years. In 2014, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived on an official visit to Japan. Two years ago, another economic delegation arrived in Japan, headed by Minister of Economy and Industry Eli Cohen and senior members of the Manufacturers' Association. The main discourse between the two countries is technological cooperation. Israel also has a research and development agreement with Japan, which encourages cooperation between Israel and Japan, and a year ago an investment agreement was signed between the two countries.
Japan has also recently signed a free trade agreement with the European Union, and the Manufacturers Association hopes that the governments will soon decide to negotiate a free trade agreement between the two countries.
Japan is the third largest economy in the world after the United States and China. According to the Export Institute's analysis, the volume of trade between Israel and Japan in 2018 was about $ 3.3 billion. This is a sharp increase of 20% compared to 2017, when trade totaled about $ 2.8 billion.
For Israel, Japan is currently the 11th largest export destination in the world and the third largest in Asia, with $ 1.1 billion in 2018. This is the highest volume of exports from Israel to Japan in 20 years! Most of the Israeli exports to Japan are industrial measuring and control equipment, metal products, chemicals and cosmetics, medical equipment, food and beverage, electronic components and more.
In 2018 imports of goods from Japan to Israel amounted to 2.2 billion dollars. The main imports were of machinery and electrical equipment, vehicles and their parts, chemicals, plastic products, medical devices and optical instruments and metals.