For Japan’s Ambassador to Greece, Koichi Ito, the timing of his posting could hardly have been more fitting. Speaking in episode 18 of To Vima International’s Ambassadors Series, Mr. Ito recalled that he arrived in 2024, just as Athens and Tokyo marked a year of culture and tourism, crowned by an official visit from Japan’s Princess Kako. Two years and seven months on, he says he has settled into the country so completely that he no longer notices the cultural adjustment that once weighed on him.
Shipping sits at the heart of the bilateral economic relationship, even if official trade statistics understate it, according to the Ambassador. Greek shipowners control roughly 20 to 25 percent of the world’s commercial fleet, he said, and around a third of those vessels are built in Japan. He noted that Japan’s new government under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has named shipbuilding among 17 priority sectors for economic growth, alongside emerging Japanese investment in Greece’s digital and pharmaceutical sectors. Japanese-brand cars, he added, now account for roughly 30 percent of passenger vehicles on Greek roads.
Japan is this year’s honored country at the Thessaloniki International Fair, taking place next week, and Mr. Ito described it as a milestone rather than a one-off. The Japanese pavilion is built around the concept of “Takumi” — traditional craftsmanship pursued to its technical limit, paired with sustainability and understated design. He said he hopes Greek business leaders and officials will use the fair to see Japanese production technology firsthand, calling it “only the beginning” of expanded partnership.
On the cultural front, Mr. Ito pointed to a lesser-known thread of the relationship: a Japanese conservation expert, backed by Japan’s Ministry of Education, spent seven years restoring Byzantine-era wall paintings at a monastery in Salamis — a site Princess Kako visited during her trip to Greece.
An enthusiastic traveler, the Ambassador has visited Thessaloniki, Corfu, Delphi, Meteora, Kavala, Chios, Crete, Santorini and Zakynthos, and has been learning Greek — an effort, he said, that has helped grow the embassy’s Instagram following to 27,000, among the largest of any foreign embassy in Athens. Asked about Greek cuisine, he singled out one dish in particular: grilled octopus.
