Japanese food companies seek halal certification from Malaysia's JAKIM

He said these companies also keen on making Malaysia their entry point to market their halal products to other destinations.

"Once they get the halal certification from JAKIM, they hope to start exporting, to make Malaysia as the entry point for their halal products to other markets," he said during his courtesy visit to the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) headquarters here, Monday.

Oka added that Japan is also interested to explore new areas of trade cooperation with Malaysia including in medical devices and technology.

He added that Japan is also currently working with Malaysia's Health Ministry in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in two areas - namely in medical devices and providing assistance and support for the cold chain system to transport vaccines.

On the renowned Tsukuba University setting up its first overseas campus here in Malaysia, the ambassador said the plan is on track and the campus is expected to be opened in 2023 with enrolment to begin next year.

He said this project will be a milestone symbolising future cooperation between Malaysia and Japan as both nations celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Look East Policy next year.

On another matter, he said the embassy has been looking forward to further promote people-to-people relations between both countries through arts and culture, and tourism among others.

"We hope to get more Malaysians, especially the younger generation to get interested with anything Japanese, such as through animation, tourism and education. I think that is a great starting point to get our people to know each other better," he said.

He also noted that there is a strong footprint of the Malaysia-Japan relations everywhere in Malaysia built based on mutual trust and confidence among the people of both countries in various fields.

Oka and the embassy's first secretary Mitsuhiko Sugita were welcomed by the agency's Chief Executive Officer Datuk Mokhtar Hussain. Oka was briefed on Bernama's operations before informal discussions with Bernama's top officials on matters of interest to both sides.

He was later taken to Bernama's Digital Media Department and Bernama News Channel before concluding his visit.