President Abdullah Gül is on an official visit to Japan this week between June 3 and 8. This will be the first visit to Japan by a Turkish head of state. What is the agenda of this visit and what should be expected from it?

When I think of the recent past, I am afraid there will be no surprises after this visit. There is no doubt that Turkey's primary focus is improving economic relations. In this respect, Turkey wants to attract more Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) to Turkey and increase trade volume, particularly exports, to Japan. Let me briefly provide some recent economic figures and then continue elaborating on what should be expected.

Japan's place in Turkey's foreign trade is simply insignificant, both in terms of exports and imports. Turkey's place in Japan's foreign trade is even worse. Although trade volume is dramatically low, in terms of trade balance, the situation dramatically favors Japan. The current trade deficit, which exceeds $3 billion, constitutes a significant part of Turkey's $30 billion trade deficit, excluding energy imports.

Why don't Turkey and Japan trade more with each other? Japan and most of the EU countries, particularly Germany, are substitute countries for Turkey in terms of the basic imports of the latter. Considering proximity, certain cultural elements and familiarity in business practices, Turkish companies prefer Germany.

In order for Japan to eradicate these disadvantages, FDI is a priority. Germany makes significant FDI in Turkey and this triggers further trade between the two countries. But when we examine existing Japanese investments in Turkey's automobile industry, we see that despite Toyota and Honda's significant place in this sector -- they are amongst the top players in both domestic and export markets -- low levels of FDI from Japan indicate the low level commercial relations between the two countries. When the Turkish side mentions a trade deficit, the Japanese side automatically reacts by saying that Japanese car manufacturers in Turkey are making large exports from Turkey, correcting the trade deficit in favor of Turkey.

Moreover, the Japanese will also mention quite confidently that each year almost 100,000 Japanese tourists visit Turkey, staying from two to four days, and that their spending is more than double compared to visitors from elsewhere. This is the message given to the Turkish side, which complains about the low number of Japanese tourists to Turkey.

However, while close to 20 million tourists visit Turkey each year, Japan is not among the top 10 tourist destinations of Turks.

Obviously, none of these explanations are sufficient to hide the fact that economic relations between the two countries are far from reflecting the potential. In this regard, there are other explanations. Japan does not favor importing from Turkey. They have even created some artificial problems in import procedures, regarding which Japan has made an infamous impression all over the world. In the eyes of the Japanese, Turkey is part of the Middle East. Of course Turkey has never been a part of the Middle East. Turks came from Central Asia and expanded toward Europe for many centuries. After the conquest of Istanbul, then the capital of East Rome, the Ottomans formed an empire, undertaking the responsibility of becoming a world state as a part of Europe. In this age, Turkey is a part of Europe in terms of economic relations (more than 60 percent of trade is with the EU), political alliances and cultural interaction. In addition to the existing customs union with the EU, Turkey is negotiating with the EU for full membership.

Historically the Japanese thought that only they had succeeded in becoming a Westernized country at "the East end of the West," and that other Asian countries could not be considered a part of Europe. It is this bizarre perspective of the Japanese that still places Turkey in the category of Middle East countries on its Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Web site.