The Japanese government has decided to speed up negotiations on concluding a free trade agreement with Israel. As noted by Israeli economic publications, there has been significant progress in these negotiations in recent months, and the agreement may be signed as early as the beginning of 2025.
Sources close to the negotiations claim that the catalyst for the free trade agreement between the two countries was similar agreements with two of Japan’s neighbors, South Korea and China. The agreement with the latter has not yet been signed, but the process is at the final stage. Tokyo fears that its cars and electronics will no longer be competitive in the Israeli market — the Israeli consumer may prefer cheaper Korean and Chinese products.
However, as far as Japanese cars are concerned, most of them are made in Europe, so the FTA will not affect their prices. The change will be felt by buyers of models produced in Japan, primarily Subaru, Mazda, Lexus and some models of Toyota, Suzuki and Nissan. The newspaper “Globes” adds that Japanese batteries are installed in some Western electric cars – they will become cheaper after the establishment of free trade. This will, of course, affect household appliances, electronics and optics, which are produced in Japan.
