Maltese youths will soon be able to head to Japan on a working holiday, after almost a decade of negotiations on the agreement were concluded, foreign minister Ian Borg announced on Wednesday.
The agreement will allow locals between the ages of 18 and 30 to spend up to a year in Japan on a working visa, with young Japanese nationals also able to travel to Malta under the same conditions.
The scheme will come into effect on 1 January 2026.
Borg and his Japanese counterpart, Hisayuki Fujii, signed the agreement during the Maltese minister’s visit to Tokyo.
Borg and Fujii after signing the agreement. Photo: Ministry for Foreign AffairsBorg said the deal “opens new opportunities for our younger generations to travel to Japan and experience the culture, history, and innovation that this country can offer”.
Borg, who is also Malta’s tourism minister, said the agreement would benefit language schools, with Japan being Malta’s “third-largest non-EU student market in the English language training travel segment”.
The six-decade-long diplomatic relations between Malta and Japan have broadened in recent years, with Malta opening a resident embassy in Tokyo in late 2020 and Japan following suit last year.
Borg will be marking 60 years of diplomatic relations between Malta and Japan at the Osaka World EXPO on Thursday, the foreign ministry said.
Aside from sealing the deal on the new working visa agreement, the ministry said Borg’s meetings with Fujii explored several other ties between the two countries, including cooperation in the maritime sector.