PRIME Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who arrived in Tokyo yesterday for a five-day working visit will be meeting his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida at the latter’s office at about 11am (local time) today.  

The itinerary shared by the Prime Minister’s Office with the Malaysian media indicated a hectic schedule for Anwar starting with a pre-council meeting with the Malaysian delegation at 10am at Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel, where the Malaysian delegation is putting up, before meeting Kishida. 

After the bilateral meeting, Anwar and Kishida are expected to witness the signing and exchange of notes of the Official Security Assistance Grant Aid and the memorandum of cooperation on Space Development and Application between the two countries. 

Anwar and delegation will return to the same hotel at 12.30pm for lunch with Sasakawa Yohei, Honorary Chair of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. 

After that, at 2.30pm there will be one-on-one meetings with top executives of three Japanese multinationals – Rohm Wako, Toshiba, and Mitsui & Co. A roundtable meeting with the captains of industry in Japan at 4.15pm is also on the cards. 

Anwar will wrap up the day with a dinner at 7pm hosted by Kishida and his wife Yuko at the Geihinkan state guesthouse at the Akasaka Palace. Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is expected to join her husband there.  

At the dinner, Anwar will be accompanied by two cabinet ministers, namely Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz and the newly minted Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan. – Bernama, December 16, 2023.