MANILA – The Philippines and Japan will sign agreements to deepen cooperation in areas such as defence and infrastructure development when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr visits Tokyo to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries.
Mr Marcos’ trip from Feb 8 to 12 is at the invitation of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, whom he first met in September 2022 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The Philippines considers the trip as consequential, said Mr Neal Imperial, the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Assistant-Secretary, at a press conference on Wednesday.
“The official working visit is expected to reaffirm the strong and vibrant relations between the two countries. It also seeks to maximise the full potential of the Philippines-Japan strategic partnership in all its aspects, and facilitate closer defence, security, political, economic and people-to-people ties,” he said.
On Feb 9, the Philippine leader will meet Mr Kishida, who will also host a working dinner for Mr Marcos.
They will witness the signing of at least seven key bilateral agreements covering various areas such as infrastructure development, defence, agriculture, and information and communications technology.
These include terms of reference on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and an exchange of notes regarding the Philippines’ US$3 billion (S$3.9 billion) worth of loans from Japan to fund two railway projects to be constructed across provinces roughly 40km north-west of the capital Manila.
Mr Marcos and First Lady Louise Araneta-Marcos will also be granted an audience with Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, but no schedule has been announced for now.
The Philippines has an economic partnership agreement with Japan, the only country to have a bilateral free trade agreement with Manila. Japan is the Philippines’ second-largest trading partner, third-largest export market and second top source of imports in 2021.
Tokyo has also been Manila’s biggest source of official development assistance, providing loans to finance several infrastructure projects, as well as social welfare, education, agriculture, and science and technology programmes in the Philippines.
Mr Marcos will also be meeting the chief executives of Japanese shipping companies and maritime associations in a bid to help improve the Philippines’ maritime education and welfare programmes.
He will meet the Filipino community in Tokyo before returning to Manila on Feb 12.
Mr Marcos, however, is not expected to discuss with Mr Kishida the case of four Japanese nationals currently detained at an immigration facility in the Philippines.
Local authorities took them into custody in January after the Japanese police linked the suspects to a string of robberies that hit 14 prefectures in Japan.
The Japanese government has requested for their deportation, but the Philippines cannot grant this yet as the suspects have pending cases in Manila.
“We don’t think it will affect in any way the visit of the President and we do not expect it to be raised during his meeting with his counterpart,” said Mr Imperial.
The Department of Foreign Affairs also said Mr Marcos will not raise the issue of Filipino comfort women, who were systematically raped by Japanese troops in the Philippines during World War II.
Mr Imperial said that as far as the Philippine government is concerned, compensation claims by comfort women have already been settled under the 1956 reparations agreement with Japan.
But he said the Marcos administration will not be preventing the victims from pursing their own cases “because this is an atrocious violence against women during the war”.
