President Ramchandra Paudel is embarking on his first bilateral state visit to Japan on Sunday. The four-day visit marks the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Nepal and Japan. This will be Paudel’s first official visit since being elected President on March 13, 2023. The ministries of foreign affairs of Nepal and Japan are set to announce the visit jointly on Friday, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

During the visit, President Paudel will pay a courtesy call on the Emperor Naruhito at Tokyo Imperial Palace. Former President Bidya Devi Bhandari had visited Japan during the emperor’s enthronement in October 2019.

Prime Minister of Japan Sanae Takaichi will also meet President Paudel, along with several other senior Japanese officials.

An official at the foreign ministry clarified that no agreements or understanding will be signed during the visit.

Diplomatic relations between Nepal and Japan were established on September 1, 1956 followed by several other high-level visits between the two sides. Japan is Nepal’s major donor as well as contributing in Nepal’s development endeavors as well as has been investing in Nepal’s infrastructure sector through the grants, loans, official development assistance (ODA), technical assistance, foreign direct investment and other bilateral arrangements.

The Nepali diaspora in Japan now exceeds 233,000, and Nepali students rank among the top three groups of foreign students, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, the year 2026 marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Nepal. To celebrate this memorable year and promote exchanges between the two countries, the governments of both countries will certify various events held in both countries as anniversary events. Events certified as anniversary events will be permitted to use the official logo, which was unveiled on December 26 in Tokyo.

Earlier President Paudel had received an invitation from China to attend a military parade commemorating victory over Japan. Since Paudel has been conferred with the ‘Order of the Rising Sun’ by the Japanese government on April, 2020, he refused to attend the Chinese event.

Following the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit of member states held at the end of August in China’s southeastern city of Tianjin, China organised a ceremony in Beijing to mark the “80th Anniversary of the End of the Second World War and the Decisive Victory of the Chinese People over Japanese Imperialism.” As part of that event, a massive military parade was held on September 3.

Former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who led Nepal’s delegation to the SCO summit, represented Nepal at that military parade.

President Paudel was awarded with ‘Order of the Rising Sun’ by the Japanese government in April, 2020 in recognition of his contributions towards strengthening the relationship between Japan and Nepal and promoting the interchange of members of parliaments of both countries, the Japanese Embassy in Kathmandu said in a press release.

The ‘Order of the Rising Sun’ is a Japanese order established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. Poudel established the Japan-Nepal Friendship Parliamentarian League in 1999 when he was the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Officials from the President’s Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs will accompany President Paudel on the visit.

After the president's visit to Japan was confirmed, the visit of Vice President Ramshay Yadav’s to the United Aarab Emirates has been cancelled. Foreign Minister Balananda Sharma met Yadav at his office last week and advised him to reconsider the UAE trip due to overlapping dates with the President’s visit. Vice President Yadav had received an invitation to attend the “World Government Summit” in Dubai from February 3 to 5 , organised by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). “It was not appropriate to have both the head of state and the second in command out of the country at the same time, so the Vice President was asked to cancel his UAE visit,” a foreign ministry official told the Post.