Political relations between Japan and Serbia are good and have been on the rise constantly since 2008, but the economic cooperation between the two countries could be much better, said Japanese Ambassador in Belgrade Toshio Tsunozaki.

The economic cooperation between the two countries will be one of the topics of discussion during the forthcoming visit of Serbian President Boris Tadic to Japan during this week.

In an interview with Tanjug, the Japanese ambassador pointed out that the political cooperation between Tokyo and Belgrade had progressed since 2000, but added that, unfortunately, Serbia's image had still not completely changed it the eyes of all citizens of Japan, as some people in Japan still thought about Serbia in terms of the wars of the 1990's.

If the Japanese businessmen came to Serbia and see what it looks like today, I believe that the economic cooperation would improve. This week, representatives of the Japanese machine industry visited Belgrade, which shows that Japanese businessmen are willing to cooperate, Tsunozaki underlined.

The Japanese ambassador stressed that over the last ten years, the government of his country has helped Serbia in several fields - education, health care, transition to a market economy, and development of transportation and water supply.

Now, greater efforts are being made by Japan to assist Serbia in the field of environmental protection, the ambassador added.

He expressed the hope that Serbian President Tadic would during his visit to Japan next week meet with the Japanese prime minister and that the two officials would discuss projects related to Nikola Tesla power plant.

The Serbian president will be on an official visit to Japan from March 7 to 10, where he will meet with Emperor Akihito of Japan, Prime Minister Naoto Kano and a number of other senior officials.