Jakarta. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida congratulated President-elect Prabowo Subianto after the General Election Commission (KPU) announced the official results on Wednesday evening. 

“In that letter, PM Kishida extends congratulations to Mr. Prabowo for being elected as Indonesia’s president for the 2024-2029 term,” a press release issued by the Japanese Embassy in Indonesia on Thursday reads.

In his message, Kishida mentioned the strategic economic partnership both countries agreed on in September.

“[PM Kishida] also conveyed his wish to encourage all sorts of bilateral partnership, and to work together [with Indonesia] in dealing with regional and international issues,” the press release reads.

Japan is a major trading and investment partner for Indonesia. Government data shows Indonesia-Japan trade amounted to $37.3 billion in 2023. Foreign direct investment (FDI) coming from Japan totaled $4.6 billion throughout last year. This made Japan Indonesia’s fourth largest foreign investor. The Jakarta Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) has also become the flagship project of Indonesia-Japan ties. 

Almost 2,000 Japanese companies were operating across Indonesia with around 7.2 million local employees. Together they contribute 8.5 percent to Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP), and nearly 25 percent to its exports, according to the Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Earlier this week, Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Masaki Yasushi talked about what sort of cooperation Tokyo would seek to explore with the new government. But KPU at the time had not declared Prabowo as the official winner. 

“We can work more in areas such as environment, climate change, infrastructure, among others,” Masaki told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday evening.

Prabowo, who currently serves as the defense minister, also hosted a visit from Masaki at his Jakarta office on March 13. But the Japanese envoy said that he was meeting Prabowo as a minister. Their talks also mainly revolved around defense cooperation.

Prabowo managed to win the election in just one round after amassing 96.2 million of the votes and a victory across 36 out of 38 provinces. Prabowo is set to officially take office in October.