When Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) begins a three-day visit to Japan on Monday, she enters a country with ”very high ambitions” and in search of partners for the green transition, says Lars Sandahl Sørensen, CEO of the Confederation of Danish Industry, who sees great Danish export opportunities in the Asian country.

”Japan is facing very large investments in green transition - both in energy efficiency and renewable energy,” says Sandahl Sørensen.

Here, the CEO expects that Denmark will be able to get ”a very large share of future investments”.

”Denmark is seen in the world as a capacity for the green transition,” he says.

Among other things, Japan wants to have an offshore wind capacity of ten gigawatts by 2030.

During her visit to Japan, Frederiksen will meet with Japan’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, where the geopolitical situation in the Indo-Pacific region and the war in Ukraine are on the agenda.

In addition, ”bilateral cooperation will be strengthened”, with the prime minister also mentioning the green transition.

And it is important for Danish companies when a Danish prime minister pays a state visit, explains Sandahl Sørensen.

”It means a lot in that culture and in that part of the world. Denmark is noticed when Danish prime ministers visit. It gives a lot of publicity and extra focus on Japan from Danish companies.”

Sandahl Sørensen adds that there are ”existing ties” between Japan and Denmark through, for example, business, tourism and the royal institutions.

”It’s important to maintain this - also in a world that is increasingly geopolitically turbulent, as is the case now.”

”Japan is looking for allies and can naturally feel isolated in the area they are geographically located,” he says.

The last time a Danish prime minister made an official visit to Japan was in 2014, when Helle Thorning-Schmidt (S) and a number of large Danish companies were on a business promotional campaign.

At the time, the visit was considered to be of great importance for both Danish exports and employment in Denmark.

In 2013, Japan was the 12th largest export market for Denmark, and according to Statistics Denmark, Danish companies exported goods and services worth DKK 25.5bn (EUR 3.4bn) to Japan.

In 2022, Japan was the 16th largest export market with a total revenue of around DKK 30bn, according to the Danish Prime Minister’s Office.

Total exports have increased from DKK 22.4bn to around DKK 30bn over the past five years. Exports thus fell in the years following the state visit in 2014.

Sandahl Sørensen attributes this to the fact that in the years after 2013, Japan’s economy ”did not develop very significantly”.

(Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Kristoffer Grønbæk)