(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today (Wednesday, 2 May 2018), in his Jerusalem office, met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.
Prime Minister Netanyahu raised the issue of
the important material that was revealed in the [Iranian] nuclear archive and said that Iran had preserved all of the plans. He added that whoever does not want nuclear weapons does not prepare plans and certainly does not preserve them. The Prime Minister said that the JCPOA was a bad agreement based on Iran's lies and deceit.
Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned
Abu Mazen's anti-Semitic remarks and said that they reveal the true reason why there is no peace. The two discussed the advancement of many bilateral issues. Japanese Prime Minister Abe invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to visit Japan.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said, "This is your second visit to Israel. My most recent visit to Japan was spectacular. We see the tremendous growth in Japanese investments of Israel, Israeli investments in Japan, the technology opportunities. This is a great partnership and we’ll make it even better."
Japanese Prime Minister Abe said, "I do hope that Mr. Prime Minister will come back to Japan in the near future. And also I am very happy to note that there has been the dramatic increase in the Japanese investment to Israel under my administration. And also this time around, I brought a business delegation from Japan to Israel, which includes so many of the CEOs from Japan, so I do hope that you’ll have a productive discussion with the business leaders in the summit meetings that we are planning to have. And also I do hope that we’ll further investment development between the two sides."
The two agreed to move forward on the issue of direct flights from Japan to Israel, which would increase tourism, investments and business.
After the expanded meeting, the prime ministers met with senior Japanese businesspeople. Prime Minister Netanyahu and Japanese Prime Minister Abe welcomed the dramatic increase in Japanese investments in Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu said, "This is only the beginning." The businesspeople praised the actions of the two governments in encouraging mutual investments and a proper business climate.
*
In January 2015 the Cabinet decided to strengthen economic ties with Japan; it has since been possible to see a clear trend of increased economic cooperation in a variety of fields.
In January 2017 an unprecedented bilateral investment protection agreement was signed following which the quantity and scope of Japanese investments in Israel have increased over a thousand-fold. For 2017 it was reported that Japanese companies had made approximately 50 investments in Israeli companies.