"Trade between Israel and Japan is growing...but we can do more"

Calcalist, the leading economic newspaper in Israel, has been acting for years as an ambassador of the Israeli business community, and especially of Israeli technology and innovation around the world. We create unique meetups both in Israel and in important capitals around the globe.

Since we founded Calcalist about 15 years ago, we have held hundreds of conferences in Israel and the Western Hemisphere. Tel Aviv, New York, Silicon Valley, London, Berlin, Paris. But this is the first time we've landed in Tokyo, or in the Far East, and it is so exciting. It took us many months to prepare for this conference. It was not easy, but it was inspiring to build the necessary bridge between Israelis and Japanese.

Yoel Esteron.

Japan has fascinated me for many years. I traveled in Japan in the past and was mesmerized by the tradition and culture. I have been reading with great pleasure the prominent Japanese authors for years. In my opinion, Haruki Murakami is one of the greatest authors in the world. Therefore, our first Israel-Japan conference is a dream come true for me.

It was just a couple of months ago that we celebrated the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Israel.

In recent years, Japan has steadily increased its involvement in the Israeli economy. Trade between Israel and Japan has grown to more than $4 billion dollars a year. Japanese companies have invested a total of $13 billion dollars in Israeli high-tech since 2000. In the last year, Japanese investments in Israel were about 13% percent of foreign investments in Israel. At the same time, almost 100 Japanese companies are currently operating in Israel.

It is very impressive. It is very encouraging. But we can do more.

That is why I was happy to hear about two months ago that the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economy agreed with their Japanese counterparts on starting a process that could lead to a free trade agreement between the countries. That could be huge.

I hope that this conference is only the first step of our activity at Calcalist to bring together the business communities of Japan and Israel. We want to hold such an event in Israel soon, in a few months. We're working on it.

I want to thank our many partners, Israelis and Japanese alike, who worked tirelessly to make this conference a reality. Special thanks to Discount CEO Uri Levin. Thank you team Calcalist, you are the best, and thank you to everyone that is here. Arigatou Gozaimasu.