PM Kishida's African tour – which includes Ghana, Kenya, and Mozambique – comes amid strengthening bilateral relations between Japan and the African continent.

Japan has recently pledged $30 billion in public and private investment to the continent over the next three years in areas such as green growth, health, human resource development, regional stabilisation and food security.

During his remote participation at the eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 8), which was held in Tunisia last August, Fumio said Japan aspires to be "a partner growing together with Africa." 

At the summit, Japan and African countries signed over 30 cooperation agreements in various fields.

Egypt-Japan relations

On the sidelines TICAD 8, Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly discussed with Fumio joint cooperation between the two countries in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCEZone), education system, transportation and health sectors.

In the past few years, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has increased its support for various development projects in Egypt.

In December 2022, the JICA approved a $301 million loan to Egypt for developing the country's fourth metro line.

In February of this year, Egypt and JICA signed a $336 million development financing agreement to support the country's Universal Health Insurance System (UHIS) over seven years.

Last month, Japan and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) signed a $3.8 million grant aid to support the Egyptian government’s efforts to boost food security by increasing water-use productivity in agriculture and resilience to climate change.

Trade exchange between Egypt and Japan stood at $1.5 billion in 2021.