Finland and Japan may be at opposite ends of the scale when it comes to the size of their populations, but the links between the two countries are very close, according to Finnish Ambassador Eero Salovaara.
"There are only 5.2 million of us Finns, but there are 4.5 million mobile phones and 2 million saunas in our country," he said. "That shows we're quite a small country that is highly industrialized and very high-tech -- but we haven't forgotten our traditions."
In an interview with The Japan Times, Salovaara emphasized the importance of foreign trade to Finland, with Japan the key trading partner in Asia and only ranking behind European Union nations and the United States in terms of overall trade.