Sho Hagio, Alfonso Martínez Cearra and Mikel Burzako in Toyota

Japan has become one of the strategic locations for Basque foreign policy. The Basque Government Director for Foreign Relations, Mikel Burzako, and the Director of Bilbao Metrópoli-30, Alfonso Martínez Cearra, travelled to Japan in March in order to thoroughly examine the development models of cities like Nagoya or Yokohama, the capital of the Prefectura de Kanagawa. It proved to be an interesting opportunity to learn about urban transformation examples of a metropolis such as Tokyo, which is characterised by an unceasing process of remodelling and growth every twenty years.

Throughout a week it has been possible to glimpse what the initial collaboration activities might be, not only in R&D&I but also in more cultural and linguistic aspects by the hand of the Japan Foundation, a highly prestigious independent institution in the country that specializes in promoting international cultural exchange. There is already an important current link between the two associations. Proof of this is the Japan party held in Bilbao on 25 April by the Basque-Japanese Association.

The meeting held with the authorities of the Port of Nagoya, one of the biggest and most important in the country, is just one example of the high level of interest that the Basque Country raises abroad. In the same way, it is important to highlight the meeting carried out with executives at the headquarters of Toyota, where they were able to visit one of this well-known brand's most heavily robotised plants and where they were welcomed by one of the company's vice-presidents.

This is a course of action to be followed in the medium and long term, in which there are interesting possibilities of collaboration both in the economic sphere and in research. This is a new gateway towards progress that opens up thanks to the cooperation of people like Sho Hagio, a Japanese researcher, or Hiromi Yosida, a lecturer in the Basque language at the University of Waseda.