Japan, Uzbekistan sign deals worth more than $8.5 billion

Soooo slow... Except of Russia and China, in Central Asia active countries are Turkey, Germany, France, South Korea, UAE and etc. Japanese businessmen are too cautious and have a lack of initiative. They are losing battles for new markets.

PTownsend, Japan has long had a deep relationship with Central Asian countries partly based on the ethnic and cultural contributions of these cultures to Japan (the Japanese language is Altaic, as are Turkish languages) and partly geopolitical. I have several students from Kyrgyzstan who are very excited about this.

Interesting that recently there have been several articles about Japanese officials visiting states which have hydrocarbon reserves, particularly natural gas. I have zero idea what's behind this activity but it suggests greater use of natural gas. Vehicles? Power generation?