Geisha from Niigata's Furumachi town cross a street in Tokyo's Omotesando district, Japan in this file photo. A Japanese envoy says Japan is interested in re-establishing direct flights to and from Brunei, but recognises that there must be an increase in the demand for such flights.Picture: EPA

Bandar Seri Begawan - Japan is interested in reestablishing direct flights to and from Brunei, but acknowledges that there must be a solid increase in the demand for such flights, an envoy said.

Akira Sato. Counsellor at the Embassy of Japan to Brunei, said the matter was discussed during a previous bilateral meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam.

"There must however be an increase of users first before this can be established," said Sato, on the sidelines of the Fourth Japanese Language and Culture Week organised by the Japanese Embassy and Universiti Brunei Darussalam last week.

The envoy said that there were direct flights to Japan from Brunei previously but the routes were suspended due to lack of demand.

"There is no specific dateline or anything but we want to increase demand first (because only by) increasing current demand can we obtain sustainable regular flights," he said, adding there were also talks to promote tourism between both countries during the Asean Tourism Forum 2010, hosted by Brunei in late January.

He said that the volume of traffic between Brunei and Japan is "rather moderate" but there is still much room for improvement and he was eager to see this happen.

He said Kyoto and Tokyo are the most popular destinations for Bruneians travelling to Japan. "1 don't know why but I assume it's because Tokyo is the modern city of Japan while Kyoto is more traditional," he said.

On the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) between Brunei and Japan, Sato said, "These EPAs will help to foster the economic relationship between both countries. I think these are a sort of leverage to establish and strengthen bilateral economic relationships between Brunei and Japan," he said.

A news report dated last year, said the total value of imports and exports between Japan and Brunei had reached $14.8 billion with Japan being the country's biggest market for liquefied natural gas (LNG). The report added that Japan had to date, imported more than 10 per cent of its total national LNG needs from Brunei since 1972, illustrating the country's long-time interest in Brunei's natural resources.

According to government statistics, Japan is Brunei's top trading partner in terms of exports.

Exports to Japan stood at a staggering $2.76 billion for January to June 2008, while imports from Japan were recorded at $61.68 million for the same period.

For the whole of 2007, Brunei's exports to Japan were valued at $3.78 billion, while imports from Japan were at $268.13 billion.-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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