South Africa and Japan have been talking a lot lately.
And not just about sushi, rugby or whether South Africans will ever truly understand the brilliance of a Japanese convenience store.
In May 2026, South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, hosted Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi for bilateral talks in Pretoria. On the agenda were some decidedly big issues: energy, security, critical minerals, investment and Japan's commitments to African development.
The meeting was part of a relationship that has become increasingly relevant.
South Africa's government says 2026 marks 116 years of relations between South Africa and Japan, with cooperation extending across trade and investment, science and technology, education and skills development.
So perhaps this is a good time to ask a smaller but important question:
If our countries are building closer connections, how well do we actually understand each other?
Trade needs translators. Relationships need understanding.
Nobody needs to pretend that learning Japanese is suddenly a prerequisite for doing business with Japan. It isn't.
International meetings happen in English. Interpreters exist. Translation technology is improving at an extraordinary pace.
But language gives you something translation alone cannot always provide: context.
Learning Japanese means beginning to understand why communication can be indirect, why levels of politeness matter, and why the relationship surrounding a conversation can sometimes be just as important as the words being spoken.
For a South African working with Japanese colleagues, studying in Japan or simply building friendships there, that understanding can turn an interaction into a relationship.
And relationships matter when countries are trying to work together.
The opportunity is becoming more practical
The connection isn't limited to government meeting rooms.
Young South Africans already have routes into Japan through initiatives such as the JET Programme, which allows South African graduates to spend at least a year working in Japan as Assistant Language Teachers.
And right now, there is another very local sign of growing interest in the language: applications are open for the December 2026 Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) in South Africa, with the Embassy of Japan listing an application deadline of 31 August 2026.
For anyone currently staring suspiciously at a page of kanji, that makes the effort feel a little less theoretical.
Japanese can be a hobby. It can begin with anime, food, travel or curiosity. But it can also develop into something much more useful: a skill that supports study, work, cultural exchange and genuine connection.
We don't need to become Japanese. We need to understand Japan better.
The point of learning another language isn't to abandon your own culture.
Quite the opposite.
Imagine more South Africans entering conversations with Japan able to explain our country, our humour, our ideas and even something as distinctly South African as ubuntu while also understanding a little more of the language and culture of the person sitting opposite them.
That's cultural exchange at its best.
Not imitation. Not translation alone. Conversation.
At a time when South Africa and Japan are actively discussing deeper cooperation, perhaps Japanese deserves to be seen as more than an interesting language spoken somewhere far away.
Because governments can sign agreements and businesses can make investments.
But ultimately, relationships between countries are also relationships between people.
And sometimes the most meaningful way to close 13,000 kilometres of distance begins with something surprisingly small:
こんにちは - Konnichiwa.
