The Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Dr Naledi Pandor, has arrived in Tokyo, Japan.

According to the Minister’s office, Pandor is scheduled to co-chair the Japan–South Africa Partnership Forum with her counterpart, His Excellency Hayashi Yoshimasa, on 13 October 2022.

“The two delegations will seek to advance political, economic, social and technical cooperation between South Africa and Japan. It is expected that the Ministers will also exchange views on regional, global and multilateral issues of mutual interest,” her office said.

Japan, the third largest economy in the world in terms of the nominal gross domestic product after the United States and China, is one of the major and continuous investors of over R90 billion in the South African economy.

The department said Japan has a current presence in South Africa of 286 companies, sustaining about 200 000 local job opportunities.

Meanwhile, new investments into the South African economy by Japanese companies include those made by Toyota, which pumped R4.28 billion, Nissan R3.2 billion and Isuzu R1.2 billion.

Source: South African Government News Agency