The 56 Cooperation Documents Unveiled in Tokyo, and What Followed

On the morning of February 19, 2024, the “Japan–Ukraine Conference for Promotion of Economic Recovery and Reconstruction” was held at the Keidanren Kaikan in Otemachi, Tokyo, at a point in time just short of two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. That day, 56 cooperation documents were exchanged between the two countries’ governments, public bodies, local governments, and companies, along with international organizations. This article lines up, as of September 2026, two and a half years later, what can be traced as “what followed” from official announcements.

What the Conference Promised

According to MOFA’s summary, the leaders’ session ran from 10:00 to 10:35 a.m., attended by Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. It was co-hosted by the Japanese government, Keidanren, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), and the Ukrainian government, and Keidanren puts total attendance at about 350 people.

In his keynote speech, Prime Minister Kishida traced the conference’s origins to his visit to Kyiv in March 2023. Having heard from President Zelensky about Ukraine’s expectations for Japan’s experience, technology, and private investment, he explained, he had concluded that Japan could make “contributions distinctly its own” and decided to hold this conference. He then presented “3 principles,” “5 actions,” and “50 pledges.” The principles were “inclusiveness,” “partnership,” and “knowledge and technology.” The 5 actions were as follows.

The speech states that the “50 pledges” correspond to “more than 50 cooperation documents” signed between Japanese companies, including startups, and the Ukrainian side. MOFA’s summary states that, together with the exchange of signed originals of the tax treaty and other items, a total of “56 signed cooperation documents” were unveiled in the presence of the two leaders.

Breaking Down the 56 Documents

MOFA has published a “list of signed cooperation documents.” Sorted by the Japanese-side signatory, it breaks down as follows.

The 34 company documents span a wide range of fields. Documents with Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food alone number six (Maekawa Manufacturing, Kubota, Yanmar Agribusiness, Mebiol, Kakuichi, and AC Biode). Others include the modernization of Kyiv Metro rolling stock by Senko Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric, and Fuji Electric together with Kriukiv Railway Car Building Works; a donation of musical instruments by Yamaha to the National Opera House in Odesa; and a document from IHI on “survey and portable-panel-bridge installation work for the improvement of Highway M15.”

Two points are worth keeping in mind when reading this list. One is the nature of the documents. Most of the document names on the list are “memorandum,” “letter of intent,” or “basic agreement”; only some are documents with clear amounts and obligations, such as treaties, exchanges of notes, grant contracts, or investment contracts. The outline of the joint communiqué likewise states that both sides welcomed the “letters of intent, cooperation memoranda, and contracts” announced at the conference. The other point is the status of the list itself. In a note, MOFA states that the list was compiled to the extent information could be gathered and “is not necessarily exhaustive,” and that, for documents other than those between government bodies, the government “does not guarantee or bear responsibility for the accuracy of their names or content.”

What Has Moved Since

Of the 5 actions, the table below shows what can be confirmed as “what followed” from official announcements.

The visa easing consists of three parts: adding full-time staff of Ukrainian companies involved in recovery and reconstruction cooperation projects to those eligible for multiple-entry short-term business visas, and relaxing the travel-history requirement for them; adding relatives of Ukrainian evacuees in Japan to those eligible for multiple-entry visas for visiting friends and family; and newly issuing multiple-entry visas, valid for 5 years with a 90-day stay period, to individuals with substantially high income and their families.

Notes were exchanged on the day of the conference for the grant aid “Emergency Recovery Plan” introduced there; Phase 3 provided ¥15.8 billion, covering four areas: mine and unexploded-ordnance countermeasures, electricity and energy, transportation, and public–private partnerships. MOFA’s “Response to the Situation in Ukraine” page also lists the signing and exchange of letters for Phase 4 (February 28, 2025) and Phase 5 (February 27, 2026) since then.

What has followed for the company-to-company documents has not been announced collectively. One example that could be confirmed individually: item 35 on the list was a document between Instalimb, which manufactures prosthetic limbs using digital technology, and Ukraine’s BEZ OBMEZHEN, on demonstrating a mass-production system. JBIC announced on May 2, 2025 that it had concluded, on March 14, 2025, a loan agreement with Instalimb (up to ¥18 million from JBIC, with a total of ¥36 million in co-financing with a private financial institution) for a business manufacturing and selling 3D-printed prosthetic limbs and other products in Kyiv.

The August 2025 “Forum”

A year and a half after the conference, on August 4, 2025, the “Japan–Ukraine Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Promotion Forum” was held in Tokyo. According to an announcement from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), it was hosted by METI, JETRO, and Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture, with Ukraine represented by Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Taras Kachka and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, among others, and 29 new cooperation documents between companies and organizations from the two countries were unveiled. METI also referred here to support for a demonstration project worth about ¥26 billion through the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), among other things.

Keidanren’s newsletter carries a summary of an explanation given by MOFA and METI officials at a Keidanren committee meeting on September 3, 2025. According to this, METI has contributed ¥26 billion to support through UNIDO, and “has concluded contracts for 29 projects in fields such as medicine, agriculture, and mine clearance.” The same summary also states that Japan has sent five public–private business missions to Ukraine since 2023, that a first-ever visit to Lviv took place in July 2025, and that Lviv City Hall has set up a “Japan Desk” as a contact point for Japanese companies.

What Remains Unclear

As of September 2026, a considerable part of the institutional progress on the 5 actions presented at the conference can be traced through official announcements. The tax treaty has taken effect, JETRO’s office has opened, and visa easing has begun. Meanwhile, negotiations to revise the investment agreement have gone through 7 rounds with no announcement of a conclusion.

For the 34 company-to-company documents, no official material could be found showing, in one place, which have become active projects and which remain stalled as memoranda. How much of NEXI’s underwriting capacity or JBIC’s credit line has actually been used also cannot be read from published materials. The figure “56” is the number of documents unveiled on the day of the conference, not the number of projects that have actually been realized.

The conference’s date and the overall scale of Japan’s support are compiled in the article on the Japan–Ukraine relationship, and changes to the tax treaty’s rates are compiled in The Japan–Ukraine Timeline.