Osaka, Kansai, Japan, May 6, 2025 (Lusa) - The president of the Portuguese Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade (AICEP) says there are "immense" export opportunities for Japan, during a three-day economic mission to the country.
Ricardo Arroja attended Expo 2025 Osaka, Japan, on Monday, Portugal's National Day at the exhibition and World Portuguese Language Day.
"With regard to export opportunities to Japan, there are immense ones, according to studies we have been conducting at AICEP, around 20% of Japanese imports of goods are in areas where Portugal has a comparative advantage, we are talking about a universe of more than €130 billion," says the manager.
Therefore, "if we could capture even a small fraction of that total, we would be talking about a very significant amount in the bilateral relationship" between the two countries, stresses the president of the entity responsible for attracting investment to Portugal.
Ricardo Arroja leaves for Tokyo on Wednesday, but the economic mission to Japan has already begun.
"The economic mission begins here in Osaka because, fortunately, Japan has many cities with large technology companies and also an international dimension that we are interested in having in Portugal. Therefore, the economic mission is an excellent opportunity to complement all the work being done in the cultural sphere, which is supported by this magnificent pavilion we have here in Osaka," he continued, referring to the Portuguese Pavilion at Expo 2025.
At present, Japan already has "significant investment" in Portugal, "we have Japanese multinationals operating in various fields of activity, particularly in service centres related" to electronics, agriculture and energy, points out the president of AICEP, adding that Japan is a sea of opportunities.
"The goal at the moment" is to promote Portugal in "areas where the Japanese currently have a keen interest in investing", i.e. renewable energy - "at the moment there is some interest in the developments we have in mind in Portugal, for example in offshore wind power, and we also have investments in the area of biofuels, which could be attractive to the Japanese", as they themselves are also active in this field.
In addition, "we have life sciences, where Japan faces very significant demographic challenges in the future", some of which it shares with Portugal.
In fact, "Portuguese science is increasingly allowing (...), in addition to pharmaceutical products, to include Portugal in biotechnology, digital medicine and clinical analysis. We have the blue economy, which is also the theme that economically frames our participation here in Osaka, so there is no shortage of topics to discuss with multinationals", he argues.
Ricardo Arroja adds that, knowing that the Japanese think in the long term, he is not expecting ‘immediate results’.
However, "let there be no doubt: Japan is a capital exporter, it is a creditor country from a financial point of view and, obviously, it is a country with which Portugal has very important historical ties and all this added together means that Japan must be a strategic partner for Portugal in the future," he argues.
The president of AICEP adds that he will have "several working meetings" in Japan, without giving names or numbers of companies or institutions he will be meeting, but he is expected to meet with more than a dozen.
‘Recently, during the blackout in Portugal, Tapada do Outeiro’, which is partly owned by a Japanese investor, “was fundamental”, as it is one of the two power stations that enabled the “black start” (the process of restoring the operation of a power plant, part of an electrical network or industrial plant, without relying on the external electricity transmission network to recover from a total or partial shutdown) and "this is a concrete example" of an investment in the Portuguese market, he said.
For example, Japanese companies in the agri-food sector, particularly in tomato paste and tomato preparations, are doing "remarkable work, not only in production but also in research and development," he said.
This is the "innovative Portugal that we want to project to the world so that the country becomes an economy that blends the traditional with the innovative and so that we can be in the top league, in the top international division in terms of the economy, adding all our cultural heritage," he concluded.
Expo 2025 Osaka started on 13 April and ends on 13 October.
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