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Japanese Ambassador: "The Nagorno Karabakh conflict is an obstacle to the development of not only Azerbaijan, but also of the entire South Caucasus"

24 January 2014 14:38 (UTC +04:00)

Japan has been supporting the country's development in various forms, after Azerbaijan regained independence. Japanese companies are involved in projects on energy production. I think there is a great potential for further development of cooperation between the two countries,” Japanese Ambassador to Azerbaijan Tsuguo Takahashi said in his interview with APA.

The Ambassador said that the Japanese companies have been mostly involved in energy projects so far, but recently they have been interested in cooperation opportunities in petrochemical, oil and gas processing, medical, high-technology fields and aerospace industries: “Azerbaijani Communications and IT Minister Ali Abbasov’s recent visit to Japan will contribute to developing the cooperation in new fields.”

He noted with regret that the volume of trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Japan still is not high enough: “The total trade volume reached $172m in 2012. This a very small indicator compared to other partners of Japan. For example, trade turnover between Japan and China is $275 billion, with the US $160 billion, with Russia $31 billion. Therefore, it can be noted that there is a great potential to improve economic and commercial relations between our countries.”

Asked about Tokyo’s position on Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Tsuguo Takahashi said the position of the Japanese government is that the conflict should be solved basing on the agreements reached, resolutions adopted up to now, international law, through peace and mutual understanding.

“Japan supports mediation efforts of OSCE Minsk Group. As a diplomat working in Azerbaijan I understand very well that Nagorno Karabakh conflict is an obstacle for the development of not only Azerbaijan, but also of the entire South Caucasus. I hope the problem will be solved soon,” he said.

To the question “Japan is one of the countries with the highest life expectancy rate. What is the secret?” the ambassador said: “As of 2012, male life expectancy in Japan reached 79.94 years. This figure ranks the fifth in the world. Japanese women averagely live 86.41 years raking the first in the world for life expectancy. One of the reasons of this is the high-level medicine of Japan. Japan has the lowest neonatal mortality rate – 1 child in 1000. Moreover, Japan has introduced universal compulsory health system and everyone is provided with high quality medical services. Perhaps, nutrition also contributes the longevity of the Japanese people. The main food of our people is rice and vegetables. We also prefer fish. Unlike other countries, the Japanese people eat low-fat food.”