Japan is one of the most important partners for Finland outside the European Union. Although we are geographically far apart, our cooperation covers a wide range of sectors and all levels from the head of state to ordinary citizens, as we saw this year with Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s visit to Japan.
I am glad to say that our relationship today is closer than it has ever been. Now that visa-free travel is possible again from Finland to Japan, we have seen the return of diverse Finnish-Japanese relations, with many Finnish businesspeople, artists, musicians and designers coming back to Japan.
Finnair has also started daily flights from Haneda
to Helsinki, and I hope I will see many Japanese visitors in Finland this year. The future looks very bright!