{"id":141881,"date":"2025-09-14T05:42:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T05:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/141881\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T05:42:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T05:42:19","slug":"watch-spains-polyglot-economy-minister-wows-investors-in-tokyo-by-speaking-japanese-for-over-two-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/141881\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: Spain’s polyglot economy minister wows investors in Tokyo by speaking Japanese for over two minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPAIN\u2019S Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo has surprised investors in Tokyo by opening his address in Japanese, a gesture that drew admiration and quickly went viral.<\/p>\n

Cuerpo, who studied the language for a year, greeted executives with: \u201cKonnichiwa, minasan. It is a great honour and a true pleasure to be here today in Tokyo.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He then proceeded to speak for an impressive two minutes in the Japanese language to deliver his message on Spain\u2019s economic outlook.<\/p>\n

He was speaking at a working breakfast with leading Japanese investors at the Hotel Okura in Tokyo, part of a trip aimed at deepening Spain\u2019s economic ties with Japan.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Spain\u2019s Congress rejects government proposal to reduce working week to 37.5 hours in blow to PM Pedro Sanchez<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Tokyo<\/p>\n

The minister told executives that Spain\u2019s GDP is forecast to grow 2.6% in 2025, well above the European average, thanks to strong domestic demand and a resilient labour market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Investment, he said, is rising as Spain\u2019s recovery plan takes hold, while debt is expected to fall to 100.9% of GDP.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur fiscal policy remains prudent,\u201d Cuerpo said, still in Japanese. \u201cWe are committed to continuing our structural reforms to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ryanair makes welcome changes to carry-on luggage size after bruising battle with Spain\u2019s airports<\/a><\/p>\n

He then later wrote on X: \u201cIt was an honour to address the investors gathered in Tokyo to convey the good moment that the Spanish economy is experiencing.<\/p>\n

\"YouTube<\/p>\n

\u201cThe executives have conveyed a clear message to us: they trust in Spain and are betting on strengthening the ties between our countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Behind the viral clip, his Tokyo mission was serious business. He met major players including Hitachi, Mitsubishi and Itochu, alongside investment funds and banks, to present Spain as a safe destination for foreign capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Japan has already invested \u20ac9.2 billion in Spain since 2010, particularly in energy, automotive and IT. Strengthening that flow is a key priority for Madrid.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Spain\u2019s Congress rejects government proposal to reduce working week to 37.5 hours in blow to PM Pedro Sanchez<\/a><\/p>\n

This was Cuerpo\u2019s second visit in little over a year, following on from Spain\u2019s appearance at the AIMA Japan Forum in May \u2013 part of a broader push to diversify Spain\u2019s investment ties in Asia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Japanese media noted that his use of their language built credibility and rapport, complementing the hard economic pitch.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s strategy follows from the UK\u2019s recent courting of Japan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

London has leveraged its post-Brexit trade deals with Japan \u2013 including the CEPA agreement and membership in the trans-Pacific CPTPP bloc \u2013 to secure big-ticket investments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In July, Britain signed a cooperation pact with Tokyo and landed a \u00a37.5 billion clean-energy deal with Sumitomo Corporation, covering offshore wind, hydrogen and grid upgrades.<\/p>\n

Click here to read more Business & Finance News<\/a> from The Olive Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPAIN\u2019S Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo has surprised investors in Tokyo by opening his address in Japanese, a gesture…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164,96664,96665,96666],"class_list":{"0":"post-141881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-news-spain","13":"tag-newspaper","14":"tag-the-olive-press"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}