Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation announced in May that it will open an Israel development centre in TelAviv, Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry reported, which will scout for investments in startups.

“In the past two years, company representatives have begun to examine whether they should expand their activity in Israel and focus more on technological cooperation, including investments in Israeli companies,” the ministry said.

Over the past four years, the Ministry of Economy and Industry say more than 70 Japanese companies have opened representative offices in Israel. Over that period, Japanese companies have invested more than US$5 billion in Israel.

Last year, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi (not related to Mitsubishi Corp.) set up a US$1billion venture capital fund, which has an Israel office.