Outgoing Ambassador of Japan to Zimbabwe His Excellency Satoshi Tanaka
By Dickson Bandera
The outgoing Ambassador of Japan to Zimbabwe, His Excellency Satoshi Tanaka yesterday paid a courtesy call to President Emmerson Mnangagwa at State House to bid him farewell.
Ambassador Takana was accompanied by his wife, together with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Acting Permanent Secretary Ambassador Rofina Ndakaziva Chikava and senior diplomat, Director for Africa, Asia and Pacific, Kossam Mupezeni.
The outgoing diplomat who assumed duty to Zimbabwe in December 2020, will leave next week after a successful 3-year tour of duty in which he superintended over a number of developmental programmes in agriculture, infrastructure, energy, education and health, among other sectors.
The continued cooperation of Japan and Zimbabwe is consistently renewed at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) and Ambassador Tanaka has been instrumental in operationalizing the resolutions at bilateral level.
One of the recent major achievements in the Japan-Zimbabwe cooperation is the successful training of Zimbabwe engineers, the design and launch of Zimbabwe’s first satellite Zimsta-1 into space in 2022. Zimbabwean engineers were in Japan for 2 years under the BIRDS 5 programme, where they worked with the Japanese experts to design and launch the historic satellite into space.
The BIRDS programme is a Japanese initiative that aims at designing, building, testing, launching and operating, the first satellites for participating nations, and Zimbabwe was among the first African countries to benefit, following president Mnangagwa’s establishment of the Zimbabwe National Geospatial Agency(ZINGSA) in 2018.
In an interview with the media after a closed door meeting with the president, HE Tanaka said he had a good discussion with the president who is pleased with the ongoing Japan-Zimbabwe relations.
“This afternoon I am here to say goodbye to His Excellency President Mnangagwa and I actually really feel sad to leave for Japan next week. I had a good discussion with the President and the President said please come back and enjoy Zimbabwe again.
“His Excellency said the bilateral relationship between Zimbabwe and Japan is going forward and we had a discussion on a lot of issues- agriculture, education and other sectors,” he said.
With regards to investment, HE Tanaka said, “I really hope that more Japanese companies are interested and visiting and hopefully investing in the Zimbabwe market. I also hope that Zimbabwean businesses are interested in the Japanese market and are promoting their industry of trade”.
At 2022 summit, Japan pledged a US$30 billion package for investment in Africa over the next three years, this giving the continent a boost towards the AU Agenda 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), among other milestones.
HE Tanaka also gave highlights on the discussion regarding the ongoing rice production programme which came about after First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa’s visit to Japan at the inaugural Asia Pacific Africa Women’s Economic Exchange Summit in 2022.
“I reported to him about our new project on rice production. The First Lady visited Japan last year and she invited one very important expert in rice production to Zimbabwe and he is now trying to promote and experiment how we can further grow rice here,” he said.
Refreshingly, the Japanese team led by Mrs Fukuyo Nakamori visited Zimbabwe and is working on rice farming in the country. The rice, known as New Rice for Africa (Nerica), was developed by Japan through cross breeding African rice species which are resistant to disease and drought, with Asian rice species which have high yield potential.
The project will undoubtedly benefit Zimbabwe given the ongoing government offensive on boosting agriculture as the nation drives towards an Upper Middle Income Economy by the year 2030.
Recently, president Mnangagwa said his target was to achieve the Upper Middle Income Economy by the year 2028 and the development trajectory so far indicate that this milestone can be achieved.
Ambassador Tanaka also spoke on further promoting Zimbabwe tourism to the Japanese markets saying the Japanese need to be informed about Zimbabwe’s vast attractive places other than Victoria Falls.
“After the Covid-19 was subdued, I believe that there have been more Japanese tourists visiting Zimbabwe but unfortunately most of them are just visiting Victoria Falls but I know there are so many places to go to in Zimbabwe including Nyanga, Hwange and others so I believe they can be informed more about Zimbabwe’s charm,” Ambassador Tanaka said.
As Japan is set to host two international events of strategic importance to Zimbabwe in 2025, the World Expo 2025 and Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9), HE Tanaka believes these conferences will further bolster bilateral relations of Zimbabwe and Japan.
“In addition to the Osaka Expo 2025, we will have another important meeting that is the TICAD meeting in 2025 and of course the Government to Government co-operation is very important and also the business relationship is very important, it is fundamental for the two countries,” he said.