Japan–Maldives relations


Japan–Maldives relations are foreign relations between Japan and Maldives. Diplomatic relations were established in 1967.

History

, the former President of the Maldives, had visited Japan four times between 1984 and 2001. In 2014 Abdulla Yameen, the President of Maldives, met with Japanese Prime minister, Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.
Maldives opened an embassy in Tokyo, in 2007. Japan also has an embassy in Malé, the Maldives.

Anti-tsunami barrier of Japan's ODA Project

In 1987, a massive storm surge hit and flooded a large part of the Maldives. The devastating surge wielded a strong influence on this island country in the Indian Ocean, particularly the infrastructure in Malé was paralyzed and damaged at an estimated cost of U.S.$6 million. GDP of the Maldives, afterwards, decreased 5.70% in this year compared to the previous one, or from U.S.$158 million in 1986 to U.S.$149 million in 1987. Malé instantly requested Tokyo for the emergency assistance and an aid in preventing disaster like the storm surge, and Japanese government accepted it. A coastal protection project supported by Japan' ODA soon began within the year, and it continued until 2002 when completed the six kilometers long barrier all the way around the capital.
Just two years after this project was consummated, in 2004, a massive undersea earthquake of magnitude 9.1 or more occurred and tsunami attacked the western part of the Pacific Ocean and almost every coastal area of the Indian Ocean including the Maldives. This enormous tsunami killed 230,000–280,000 people in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Madagascar, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and the Maldives outside Malé Island. Nevertheless, in the Maldives, the anti-tsunami barrier built by collaboration between both of the island countries, protected those who lived in Malé without any deaths.

Diplomatic missions

Japanese ambassadors to Maldives

  1. Kazumi Endo
  2. Keiko Yanai

    Maldivian ambassadors to Japan

  3. Abdul Hameed Zakariyya
  4. Ahmed Khaleel
Adam Hamid
  1. Mohamed Hussain Shareef
Adam Hamid
  1. Ibrahim Uvais