After almost two years in Ukraine, “meeting common people” is what Japanese Ambassador Toichi Sakata enjoys most about his job.
Sakata spoke to the Kyiv Post from his office near European Square. The walls are covered with Japanese and Ukrainian landscapes. There is also a prominent portrait of iconic poet Taras Shevchenko, a gift from Cherkasy Oblast authorities when the ambassador visited Shevchenko’s grave in Kaniv.
“The nature is majestic there,” he said, noting that he has read several poems by Shevchenko in Japanese translation. It’s evidence that his understanding of Ukraine has improved a lot since his appointment in April 2012, when he only knew the name of the capital city and the Chornobyl tragedy.
Ukraine’s nature is something to admire, the ambassador said, but the business climate is not.
There are 40 Japanese businesses in Ukraine today, according to Sakata, a number that hasn’t changed much in recent months. Most of them are involved in car production and agriculture.
There could be so many more. “The question is, what the conditions are for them here,” he said.
Sakata listed several reasons that repel Japanese investors from Ukraine, including the lack of transparency, continually changing regulations, corruption and selective justice. Taken together, Ukraine’s low position in international business rankings scare away potential Japanese investors.
“To sum it up, for Japanese businesses it is still very hard to operate in Ukraine. We really hope that this situation will change,” Sakata said.
Japanese businesses are closely watching whether Ukraine and the European Union will sign a political cooperation and free-trade pact in Vilnius, Lithuania on Nov. 28-29. “If the association agreement will be signed, Japanese businessmen will gain big hopes for the Ukrainian market,” Sakata said.
Right now, Sakata is trying to help importers of Japanese cars fight new duties that amount to 6.5 percent to 13 percent of a car’s price, contradicting World Trade Organization rules, he said. The Japanese government is seeking cancellation of the burdensome duties.
“If it won’t be cancelled, Japan may introduce sanctions against the Ukrainian government,” Sakata said, without specifying what the sanctions could be.
The list of Japanese car retailers in Ukraine is impressive. It includes Mitsubishi, Honda, Toyota and more. For car production to take place in Ukraine, he said, the nation needs better business conditions.
Japan’s economy offers Ukraine an example of how a nation “with very little natural resources” can nonetheless “train people real well in order to produce competitive goods,” Sakata said.
He said that investors closely watch the behavior of the tax administration. In particular, inspectors’ growing scrutiny of representative offices in Ukraine can spook investors, he said.
“Even one single case of unfair treatment by the tax administration can have a very negative impact not just on business, but on relations between countries, too. It can make investors lose their motivation to enter the market or to continue operating on it,” he said.
On Oct. 1, a Japanese delegation will come to Ukraine and meet with representatives of the Ministry of Trade. A previous gathering took place in Japan last year.
Overall, Ukrainian officials have gone to Japan far more frequently than Japanese officials have come to Ukraine. But that is changing, the ambassador said. admire, the ambassador said, but the business climate is not.
There are 40 Japanese businesses in Ukraine today, according to Sakata, a number that hasn’t changed much in recent months. Most of them are involved in car production and agriculture.
There could be so many more. “The question is, what the conditions are for them here,” he said.
Sakata listed several reasons that repel Japanese investors from Ukraine, including the lack of transparency, continually changing regulations, corruption and selective justice. Taken together, Ukraine’s low position in international business rankings scare away potential Japanese investors.
“To sum it up, for Japanese businesses it is still very hard to operate in Ukraine. We really hope that this situation will change,” Sakata said.
Japanese businesses are closely watching whether Ukraine and the European Union will sign a political cooperation and free-trade pact in Vilnius, Lithuania on Nov. 28-29. “If the association agreement will be signed, Japanese businessmen will gain big hopes for the Ukrainian market,” Sakata said.
Right now, Sakata is trying to help importers of Japanese cars fight new duties that amount to 6.5 percent to 13 percent of a car’s price, contradicting World Trade Organization rules, he said. The Japanese government is seeking cancellation of the burdensome duties.
“If it won’t be cancelled, Japan may introduce sanctions against the Ukrainian government,” Sakata said, without specifying what the sanctions could be.
The list of Japanese car retailers in Ukraine is impressive. It includes Mitsubishi, Honda, Toyota and more. For car production to take place in Ukraine, he said, the nation needs better business conditions.
Japan’s economy offers Ukraine an example of how a nation “with very little natural resources” can nonetheless “train people real well in order to produce competitive goods,” Sakata said.
He said that investors closely watch the behavior of the tax administration. In particular, inspectors’ growing scrutiny of representative offices in Ukraine can spook investors, he said.
“Even one single case of unfair treatment by the tax administration can have a very negative impact not just on business, but on relations between countries, too. It can make investors lose their motivation to enter the market or to continue operating on it,” he said.
On Oct. 1, a Japanese delegation will come to Ukraine and meet with representatives of the Ministry of Trade. A previous gathering took place in Japan last year.
Overall, Ukrainian officials have gone to Japan far more frequently than Japanese officials have come to Ukraine. But that is changing, the ambassador said. admire, the ambassador said, but the business climate is not.
There are 40 Japanese businesses in Ukraine today, according to Sakata, a number that hasn’t changed much in recent months. Most of them are involved in car production and agriculture.
There could be so many more. “The question is, what the conditions are for them here,” he said.
Sakata listed several reasons that repel Japanese investors from Ukraine, including the lack of transparency, continually changing regulations, corruption and selective justice. Taken together, Ukraine’s low position in international business rankings scare away potential Japanese investors.
“To sum it up, for Japanese businesses it is still very hard to operate in Ukraine. We really hope that this situation will change,” Sakata said.
Japanese businesses are closely watching whether Ukraine and the European Union will sign a political cooperation and free-trade pact in Vilnius, Lithuania on Nov. 28-29. “If the association agreement will be signed, Japanese businessmen will gain big hopes for the Ukrainian market,” Sakata said.
Right now, Sakata is trying to help importers of Japanese cars fight new duties that amount to 6.5 percent to 13 percent of a car’s price, contradicting World Trade Organization rules, he said. The Japanese government is seeking cancellation of the burdensome duties.
“If it won’t be cancelled, Japan may introduce sanctions against the Ukrainian government,” Sakata said, without specifying what the sanctions could be.
The list of Japanese car retailers in Ukraine is impressive. It includes Mitsubishi, Honda, Toyota and more. For car production to take place in Ukraine, he said, the nation needs better business conditions.
Japan’s economy offers Ukraine an example of how a nation “with very little natural resources” can nonetheless “train people real well in order to produce competitive goods,” Sakata said.
He said that investors closely watch the behavior of the tax administration. In particular, inspectors’ growing scrutiny of representative offices in Ukraine can spook investors, he said.
“Even one single case of unfair treatment by the tax administration can have a very negative impact not just on business, but on relations between countries, too. It can make investors lose their motivation to enter the market or to continue operating on it,” he said.
On Oct. 1, a Japanese delegation will come to Ukraine and meet with representatives of the Ministry of Trade. A previous gathering took place in Japan last year.
Overall, Ukrainian officials have gone to Japan far more frequently than Japanese officials have come to Ukraine. But that is changing, the ambassador said. admire, the ambassador said, but the business climate is not.
There are 40 Japanese businesses in Ukraine today, according to Sakata, a number that hasn’t changed much in recent months. Most of them are involved in car production and agriculture.
There could be so many more. “The question is, what the conditions are for them here,” he said.
Sakata listed several reasons that repel Japanese investors from Ukraine, including the lack of transparency, continually changing regulations, corruption and selective justice. Taken together, Ukraine’s low position in international business rankings scare away potential Japanese investors.
“To sum it up, for Japanese businesses it is still very hard to operate in Ukraine. We really hope that this situation will change,” Sakata said.
Japanese businesses are closely watching whether Ukraine and the European Union will sign a political cooperation and free-trade pact in Vilnius, Lithuania on Nov. 28-29. “If the association agreement will be signed, Japanese businessmen will gain big hopes for the Ukrainian market,” Sakata said.
Right now, Sakata is trying to help importers of Japanese cars fight new duties that amount to 6.5 percent to 13 percent of a car’s price, contradicting World Trade Organization rules, he said. The Japanese government is seeking cancellation of the burdensome duties.
“If it won’t be cancelled, Japan may introduce sanctions against the Ukrainian government,” Sakata said, without specifying what the sanctions could be.
The list of Japanese car retailers in Ukraine is impressive. It includes Mitsubishi, Honda, Toyota and more. For car production to take place in Ukraine, he said, the nation needs better business conditions.
Japan’s economy offers Ukraine an example of how a nation “with very little natural resources” can nonetheless “train people real well in order to produce competitive goods,” Sakata said.
He said that investors closely watch the behavior of the tax administration. In particular, inspectors’ growing scrutiny of representative offices in Ukraine can spook investors, he said.
“Even one single case of unfair treatment by the tax administration can have a very negative impact not just on business, but on relations between countries, too. It can make investors lose their motivation to enter the market or to continue operating on it,” he said.
On Oct. 1, a Japanese delegation will come to Ukraine and meet with representatives of the Ministry of Trade. A previous gathering took place in Japan last year.
Overall, Ukrainian officials have gone to Japan far more frequently than Japanese officials have come to Ukraine. But that is changing, the ambassador said. When a tsunami triggered a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011, Japan tapped Ukraine’s knowledge in managing the 1986 Chornobyl disaster.
“The Japanese government wants the Ukrainian government to train it on how to treat and clean the territory around Fukushima plant, and how to organize the social payments for those evacuated from the contaminated area,” Sakata explained.
Meanwhile, Japan is interested in improving Ukraine’s ecology, including through supplying hybrid-engine cars to police, providing energy efficient engines for Kyiv metro trains and energy efficient heating equipment for plants in Donetsk, among other projects, he said.
In Ukraine’s 22 years of independence, Japan has provided the nation with $152.9 million in grants and some $420 million in credit, including a $170 million loan for the reconstruction of the Boryspil International Airport in 2005.
Japan at a glance:
Territory: 378,000 square kilometers.
Population:
126.6
million (as of 2012).
Government
type: Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy.
Head of
government: Emperor Akhihito, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.
GDP (PPP): $4,627 billion.
GDP (PPP) per
capita: $36,265.
Main
industries: motor vehicles producing, electronic equipment, steel and
nonferrous metals, machine tools, textiles, chemicals
Ukrainian-Japanese relations:
Trade: $1.1
billion.
Exports
from Japan to Ukraine: cars, electric
equipment, medical equipment, car parts, tires.
Exports
from Ukraine to Japan: corn, iron, aluminum, ferroalloys.
Japan’s
investment in Ukraine: $159 million as of July of 2012.
Source:
Embassy of Japan in Ukraine, Embassy of Ukraine in Japan, www.web-japan.org, International Monetary Fund
Kyiv Post editor Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected]
