The out-going mayor is seeking to tie up new deals between the countries in tech innovation and life sciences, as well as retail, in a bid to increase the £950m pumped into the capital past year by Japan, its fourth largest foreign investor. In 2014, trade with the capital totalled nearly £950million.
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The Mayor of London kicked off his whistlestop tour of the world’s third largest economy by stunning locals when he danced in the aisles of a swanky department store.
Mr Johnson warned Tokyo governor Yoichi Masuzoe that there will be a “mood of gloom and negativity” in the run-up to the Olympics that will disappear as soon as they are under way and then it will “be like the sun has come out”.
In recent years London has become a world beater in hosting major global sports events.
Unruly was founded in London in 2006 and now employs 200 people across 15 offices with headquarters operations in London, New York and Singapore.
The Mayor is spending time in Osaka, Japan’s second metropolis, with a population of nearly 3m.
Later, the Conservative MP will dip into the fashion world when he helps to launch a flagship store for Burberry, one of Britain’s biggest clothing brands.
Mr Johnson, who will be accompanied by academics from the MedCity biosciences organisation, will seek to raise the profile of London’s expertise in the sector in a speech at BioJapan, the largest biotechnology event in Asia, during a visit to Yokohama.
As well as being exempt from the congestion charging fee in Central London, hydrogen vehicles pay no road tax and there is now no duty on hydrogen as a road fuel.
The visit is part of the Mayor’s initiative to strengthen ties with world cities, such as Tokyo, and promote London to the world. He will also join a business delegation of London’s leading bio-science companies. Manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment make up the bulk of existing trade between London and Japan, with over 160 Japanese research and development projects underway in the UK.
Green technology will also be a focus of the trip with Johnson visiting Toyota and Mitsubishi to discuss the potential of green transport.
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Helping Johnshon push the fintech agenda in Japan will be the government’s fintech envoy, and chair of Tech City UK Eileen Burbidge, as well Barclays chief digital officer Derek White.
