President Cyril Ramaphosa is in Japan leading South Africa’s high-level delegation at the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development Summit (Ticad) in Yokohama City.
Ramaphosa, who arrived in Japan on Tuesday, will participate in the summit from 20-22 August 2025 under the theme “Co-creating Innovative Solutions with Africa”.
The summit is underpinned by three Plenary Sessions, which illustrate established areas of cooperation between the African Union and Japan, namely: Society: Realising a Sustainable Future; Economy: Promoting Trade and Investment; and Peace and stability: Ensuring Human Dignity and Human Security.
The summit takes place at a time of unprecedented threats to global peace and security, including ongoing conflicts, distortions and disruption to global trade, and a concerning move by some states toward unilateral action, the Presidency said in a statement.
The Presidency highlighted how rising fuel, food and energy prices have severely impacted developing countries, entrenching poverty and higher levels of inequality in a context of constrained job opportunities.
“The debt and liquidity crisis on the African continent is worsening the challenging socio-economic environment and constraining the fiscal space for governments to cast a safety net over its citizens,” the Presidency said.
“AU discussions with the government of Japan under the auspices of TICAD presents an opportunity for the two sides to engage in discussions that seek to foster collective solutions to these challenges.”
South Africa, as a member state of the AU, will prioritise support from the government of Japan for the Second Ten-Year Implementation Plan (STYIP) of Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, especially in the priority areas of infrastructure development, peace and security, and health.
“President Ramaphosa will advance South Africa’s Presidency of the G20 and pursue bilateral economic engagements with the government of Japan with a view to strengthening trade and investment ties between South Africa and Japan,” the Presidency said.
This year marks 115 years of relations between South Africa and Japan.
The two countries enjoy well-established bilateral relations within the framework of the Partnership Forum held at a ministerial level and maintain strong cooperation in the fields of trade and investment; science and technology; education; skills transfer and capacity building through development cooperation.
Bilateral trade between Japan and South Africa had been expanding since the establishment of full diplomatic relations in 1992. Japan is one of the major investors (over R90 billion) in the South African economy, with 260 Japanese companies, sustaining over 150 000 local jobs.
Japan is the fourth largest economy in the world, and total bilateral trade between the two countries in 2024 was R132 billion with South Africa recording a trade surplus of R52 billion.
“President Ramaphosa will engage with leading captains of Japanese industry and business …a South African high level business delegation is also participating at the TICAD,” the Presidency said.
Ramaphosa is accompanied by Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola; Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology, Bonginkosi Nzimande; Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau; Minister of Electricity and Energy, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa; Deputy Minister of Health, Joe Phaahla, and senior government officials. – SAnews.gov.za
