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Speaker 1: Seven oh two Drive. It's eighteen minutes past four. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to the show if you've just joined us. Geopolitics have

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Speaker 1: been very, very turbulent for a good many months now.

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Speaker 1: Of course, we are in a particular and some might

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Speaker 1: say uniquely difficult time with a conflict going on in

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Speaker 1: the Middle East. In that context, relationships between countries, bilateral

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Speaker 1: ties have become more important than ever. That's why today

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Speaker 1: we're going to focus our attention on South Africa's relationships

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Speaker 1: with the country of Japan. And we welcome to the

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Speaker 1: seven oh two Drive studio is Excellency shimiz Or Fumio,

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Speaker 1: who is Ambassador of Japan to South Africa. Ambassador, welcome

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Speaker 1: and thanks very much for giving us your time today.

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Speaker 2: Thank you or the invitation, mister John Parman.

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Speaker 1: So, Ambassador, let's just talk in broad terms. First of all,

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Speaker 1: South Africa relationships with Japan. Are they fundamentally about trade

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Speaker 1: and the two economies? Are we also looking to align

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Speaker 1: ourselves on some of the big global issues as well?

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Speaker 1: In other words, are they political relationships as well?

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Speaker 2: Well? Japan has been developing a good and trust relationship

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Speaker 2: with South Africa, and we started our diplomatic relations at

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Speaker 2: nineteen ten, and after that both countries have faced a

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Speaker 2: very serious respective histories and then nineteen ninety two we

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Speaker 2: re established our relationship and then we have been conducting

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Speaker 2: our corporation in various areas, especially in the economic areas.

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Speaker 2: You may know that Japan is now or last year

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Speaker 2: numbers number five Rais or trade partner for South Africa

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Speaker 2: and number seven Ladius investors to South Africa. When we

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Speaker 2: look at the roles in South Africa, we see many

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Speaker 2: many Japanese cars. So Japanese car makers such as Toyota

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Speaker 2: and others, and also the car parts making companies have

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Speaker 2: come to South Africa and making the area as vehicles

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Speaker 2: more than two hundred thousand vehicles made in South Africa.

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Speaker 2: And these are the trade and investment relations. Now, as

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Speaker 2: you mentioned that the wild situation structure is changing, and

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Speaker 2: for Japan it is important that in such a situation

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Speaker 2: the world should not be divided. Yes, Wild should be

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Speaker 2: united and should corporate with each other. This is our

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Speaker 2: basic policy and for that we have a vision named

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Speaker 2: Free and Open in the Pacific, and this vision is

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Speaker 2: announced in twenty sixteen and when the then Prime Minister

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Speaker 2: mister Abbe came to Kenya for the sixth edition of

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Speaker 2: what we call the Ticket Tokyo International African Development Conference,

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Speaker 2: and he addressed his keynote speech, and in this keynote

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Speaker 2: speech he addressed the whip free and open in the passpic.

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Speaker 2: This is an idea that we should respect and promote

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Speaker 2: the basic barriers and principles such as freedom, democracy, basic

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Speaker 2: human rights and the rule of law. And with this

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Speaker 2: in our mind, we do our utmost diplomatic efforts. And

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Speaker 2: I dereeve that South Africa ap for the same fundamental

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Speaker 2: values and principles as I said the area and with

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Speaker 2: such a country, we would have to cooperate with each

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Speaker 2: other not only for the biouct of economic relations, but

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Speaker 2: also to challenge there are various international issues.

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Speaker 1: How though, do you, as a small country which we

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Speaker 1: are or medium sized country which we are, and I'm

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Speaker 1: just talking about the numbers here, how do we sustain

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Speaker 1: relationships with one of the world's biggest economies like Japan

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Speaker 1: in a world in which there are very powerful nations

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Speaker 1: like and let's just say the United States, who are

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Speaker 1: looking not only to influence therebilateral relationships, we are looking

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Speaker 1: to change the global terms of trade for everybody. How

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Speaker 1: do we keep our business going when a large country

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Speaker 1: like the US is wanting to change the rules for everyone.

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Speaker 2: First of all, South Africa is not a small country,

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Speaker 2: the middle income country and you are influential country in

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Speaker 2: the global South. And as I said that nowadays it

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Speaker 2: is important that the world should not be divided and

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Speaker 2: we should cooperate with each other.

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Speaker 1: Is that, but ambassador, with respect, it is divided.

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Speaker 2: Well, we are facing the challenges in the international community, yes,

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Speaker 2: but in such a situation, well, because we are in

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Speaker 2: such a situation, it is important to respect and promote

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Speaker 2: the basic, basic, very basic idea of the inter national

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Speaker 2: ror international principle which is written in the Charter. And

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Speaker 2: so of course, and we would like to corporate with

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Speaker 2: the various countries including South Africa, who also respect and

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Speaker 2: to promote such basic barriers and characters. So this is

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Speaker 2: very much important time for US and for South Africa

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Speaker 2: to cooperate with each other.

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Speaker 1: Let's look at the future. And when I talk about

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Speaker 1: the future, I don't mean a long way away, but

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Speaker 1: the next two three years. What does Japan see as

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Speaker 1: the most crucial economic opportunities that lie in our bilateral relationship?

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Speaker 1: Where would Japan wish to invest and what do we

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Speaker 1: make that Japan is keen to buy more of.

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Speaker 2: Well, Japan has already invested in various areas such as

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Speaker 2: energy in for ras, structure, communication, minerals and others. And

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Speaker 2: as I said, area that we see as the many

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Speaker 2: investments from Japan in the area of a car industry,

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Speaker 2: but also South Africa and also Japan facing the very

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Speaker 2: serious international challenges such as targeting the carbon zero or

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Speaker 2: emission on carbon neutral or facing the cremate change and

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Speaker 2: so forth. And one of the key areas which we

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Speaker 2: will corporate further and more is the corporator in the

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Speaker 2: area of just energy transition and regarding to this issue Russia.

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Speaker 2: In November, the government of Japan and South Africa assigned

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Speaker 2: a memorandum corporation on the carbonization and or realize the

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Speaker 2: corporation in the area of the carbonization. We are doing

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Speaker 2: a b area's corporation concrete corporations. And recently we organized

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Speaker 2: a seminar in our embassy and focusing upon the corporation

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Speaker 2: in the area of energy and the rail way and

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Speaker 2: we showcased what do we have achieved here and also

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Speaker 2: we showcased so what do we can do off the

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Speaker 2: Japanese technology to facing such challenges.

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Speaker 1: The world is in a state of real turbulence at

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Speaker 1: the moment. I think it's fair to say that I'm

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Speaker 1: probably understating it, Ambassador. I mean, what is Japan's perspective

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Speaker 1: for the next three months six months to think that

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Speaker 1: there are signs that we might be getting out of

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Speaker 1: this particular crisis we're in, or we need to put

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Speaker 1: on our seatbelts and get ready for a long and

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Speaker 1: bumpy ride.

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Speaker 2: As far as I understand, the most urgent issue is

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Speaker 2: the safety and stability in the Middle East, and we

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Speaker 2: do our utmost efforts to calm down or de escalate

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Speaker 2: the situation. Who example, on the nineteenth match. Very recently

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Speaker 2: ten days ago, our Prime Minister Sanai Takaichi vis visited

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Speaker 2: Washington to have a bi rater or semity meeting with

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Speaker 2: mister Donald Trump, and she insisted in front of mister

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Speaker 2: Trump that we need to cooperate with each other, WHO

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Speaker 2: that they escalate the situation so they escourage the situation

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Speaker 2: as well as it is important that we could restore

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Speaker 2: the free navigation in the homes the Strait and for

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Speaker 2: that also on the nineteenth match, Japan and the other

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Speaker 2: five countries issued a joint Samitor revel statement or to

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Speaker 2: ask Iran to secure the secular navigation and the Home

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Speaker 2: Strait Ambassador.

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Speaker 1: There many more things we can talk about, but we've

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Speaker 1: come to the end of our time, but thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for joining us here on seven or two drive.

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Speaker 1: Ambassador of Japan to South Africa, Shi Mizo Fumio, we

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Speaker 1: thank you for your time. It's twenty nine minutes passful