The CEOs of Japanese companies including Kubota, JFE Engineering, IHI, Nippon Koei and others are accompanying senior Japanese political figures on a trip to Ukraine this week to assess opportunities in the reconstruction.
The delegation, led by Senior Vice Foreign Minister Kiyoto Tsuji and Senior Vice Economy Minister Kazuchika Iwata, also included Fumiya Kokubu, the envoy for the reconstruction of Ukraine of Keidanren, Japan's biggest business lobby, and Saiki Kozo, director general of the Brussels office of Jetro, the Japan External Trade Organization.
The delegation, which visited with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, announced €160 million in support from the Japanese government for reconstruction projects and donated demining equipment as well as supplies for power plants to the country.
"We see great prospects for involving Japanese companies in the early recovery of Ukraine,” said Ukrainian Economy Ministery Yulia Svyrydenko, who received the delegation. "Strategically important sectors for building a new country and attracting private investment are defence, agricultural production and processing, renewable energy, gas production and storage, green metallurgy, construction, environmentally friendly transport, healthcare and pharmaceuticals."
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which re-opened its office in Ukraine last month after closing it in early 2022 due to the Russian invasion, donated 20 pickup trucks, 20 station wagons and 50 metal detectors during the Japanese delegation's visit, along with a donation of 150 containers of fire extinguishing liquid from Japan's Shabondama Soap Co.
Japan has pledged a total $6.9 billion in financial and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion, according to the Ukraine Support Tracker of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
