Japan–South Africa relations are the current and historical bilateral relations between

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

History

The genesis of trade relations between Japan and the future South Africa date to 1643 when

Jan van Riebeeck Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck (21 April 1619 – 18 January 1677) was a Dutch navigator and colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company. Life Early life Jan van Riebeeck was born in Culemborg, as the son of a surgeon. He ...

first arrived at

Dejima , in the 17th century also called Tsukishima ( 築島, "built island"), was an artificial island off Nagasaki, Japan that served as a trading post for the Portuguese (1570–1639) and subsequently the Dutch (1641–1854). For 220 years, it ...

in Nagasaki harbor. Reebeck accompanied

Jan van Elseracq Jan van Elseracq, also known as Jan van Eserack, was a merchant/trader and official of the Dutch East India Company (''Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie'' or VOC). Career Van Elseracq was the VOC ''opperhoofd'' starting 1 November 1641 and endi ...

, who was the representative of the

Dutch East Indies Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock c ...

(VOC) in Japan. Seven years later in 1650, Riebeck proposed selling hides of South African wild animals to Japan.

In 1898, Furuya Komahei was the first Japanese businessman to open a shop in South Africa. The Cape Town store was called ''Mikado Shōten'' (Emperor Shop). It stayed open until 1942, when it was closed and confiscated by the government. In 1904, Iwasaki Kanzō's small businesses in Durban were assisted by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. Japanese Lantern Monument, Company's Garden

Japanese Lantern Monument, Company's Garden

Japan opened a consulate in Cape Town in 1918. The Japanese government in 1932 erected a stone lantern in the

Company's Gardens The Company's Garden is the oldest garden in South Africa, a park and heritage site located in central Cape Town. The garden was originally created in the 1650s by the region's first European settlers and provided fertile ground to grow fres ...

of Cape Town in appreciation of their benevolence towards Japanese immigrants in the 1930s. Japan began actively trading with South Africa for natural resources since the 1960s, despite international sanctions at the time in response to the latter's

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

government. As a result, Japanese in South Africa were granted the

honorary white Honorary whites is a term that was used by the apartheid regime of South Africa to grant some of rights and privileges of whites to those who would otherwise have been treated as non-whites under the Population Registration Act. This was made o ...

status, much to the complaint of South African opposition party politicians and the press which questioned why the Japanese were granted special privileges. In addition, Japan's support and passive posture toward white minority rule brought about criticism from other African nations. In 1983, Tanzanian Ambassador to Japan, Ahmed Hassan Diria, pointed out that profits generated from Japanese tourists visiting South Africa helped strengthen apartheid. Since 1994, greater co-operation between Japan and South Africa has been limited by domestic bureaucratic and institutional conflicts within both countries. South Africa was not invited by Japan to the 2023 G7 conference causing speculation in the media that it was snub for South Africa's non-critical diplomatic position regarding Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

References

External links

Japan-South Africa Relations at MOFA.go.jp

Embassy of Japan in South Africa

The South African Embassy in Japan

Bilateral relations of South Africa {{Bilateralrelations-stub