Japanese Envoy Backs Early Tourism Flights

oreign Minister Prak Sokhonn and the new Japanese Ambassador to Cambodia Ueno Atsushi have agreed to push for the early resumption of direct flights between the countries to boost tourism. Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and international Cooperation

PHNOM PENH – Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn and the new Japanese Ambassador to Cambodia have agreed to push for the early resumption of direct flights between the countries to boost tourism.

The agreement emerged when Sokhonn, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, met Ambassador Atsushi Ueno on Jan. 19.

Cambodia received about 2.28 million international tourists in 2022 but only 29,733 came from Japan.

The top source of foreign tourists was Thailand, with 853,376 arrivals. Vietnam was next with 463,995, followed by China’s 106,875.

The United States was next with 93,386, followed by Laos (92,609), Indonesia (75,653), Korea (64,040), France (56,509), Malaysia (53,123) and the UK (44,123)

At the meeting, Ueno expressed satisfaction at the state of the relationship between the countries and shared the commitment to deepen ties.

Sokhonn said he was pleased that the friendship and cooperation between the countries remained strong and thrived despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was shown by the strong trade recovery, close to the pre-COVID-19 level, strong investment, enhanced military cooperation and the continued support by Japan in all fields. 

Both noted with satisfaction the elevation this year of relations from "Strategic Partnership" to "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership". 

They discussed ways to further enhance cooperation in fields including trade and investment, peace building, demining, human resource development, human rights and democracy, culture, people-to-people ties and tourism.


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