President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday said he was honored to meet Their Majesties, Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako of Japan, during his “very productive” working visit, where a historic 35 key deals were signed between the Philippines and its long-time ally.

“It has been a productive visit and also, one of the highlights of course was my and the First Lady’s audience with Their Majesties, the Emperor and Empress, and it was a very great honor for us to be able to meet him and to again reestablish that connection between the Philippines and Japan,” the President said in an interview.

President Marcos said his working visit to Tokyo is a “particularly important visit” because it is “really a setting down the blueprint for our relations as we slowly emerge from the pandemic economy.”

“And I think that we will be able to feel the effects of these discussions, of these agreements, very, very soon, very rapidly back home in the Philippines,” the President pointed out.

The President also underscored the “continuing development of our relationship with Japan” and pointed out the “very, very close relationship since 1956 when we established our diplomatic relations.”

“Those relations have grown and have become deeper as time has gone on and we owe Japan a debt of gratitude for the support that they have given us in those years, even in the ‘60s, in the ‘70s and all the way up to now, where they have supported our infrastructure development,” the President said.

“They have supported our agriculture, they have supported our attempts at making the digitalization of the Philippines a more widespread phenomenon,” the President added.

The 35 key agreements signed between the Philippines and Japan earlier in the day also “cut across the whole gamut,” according to the chief executive.

“We’re talking about agri, we are talking about digitalization, we are talking about industry, we are talking about automotive development, we are talking about energy, even education, tourism,” the President said.

President Marcos also lauded the Japanese government and business leaders he met for being “very open in our discussions for the plans to help increase the development of our country.”

“[This is] in terms of again, those areas: infrastructure, digitalization, agriculture, some of the traditional areas with which we had always dealt with Japan, but some new areas, areas such as security and defense and also mitigation and adaptation to the effects of climate change,” Marcos said. #