Canada GCAP fighter interest sat alongside a much larger trade result on Thursday, when Canadian companies signed more than $1.7-billion in commercial deals in Japan during the Team Canada trade mission. Maninder Sidhu witnessed 14 agreement signings and said the total was a record amount secured during a Canadian trade mission.
The mission brought more than 300 delegates from 175 Canadian organizations. It ran three days and came after a partnership announced by Canada and Japan during Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Tokyo in March.
Japan trade mission deals
Sidhu, the federal Minister of International Trade, said: “This is trade diversification in action: Canadian businesses signing real agreements, opening new markets, and deepening our partnership with Japan, one of our most important partners in the Indo-Pacific,” during the trade mission. The scale of the agreements gives Canadian companies a concrete result from the trip, rather than a promise of future discussions.
The mission was the largest to the Indo-Pacific region since the government launched its trade diversification strategy in the continent. That makes the Thursday signings a marker of how Ottawa is trying to broaden commercial ties beyond a single market, with Japan presented as a central partner in that effort.
MDA Space and Deep Sky
Two of the deals show the range of the mission. Mitsubishi Electric Corp. selected MDA Space Ltd. to support defence satellite communications for Japan’s Ministry of Defence, and MDA Space will manufacture and test advanced antenna solutions in Montreal while its operations in Britain support the core technology.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. invested in Deep Sky to bolster Japan’s carbon capture ecosystem and support the development of the Japan–Canada carbon removal corridor. Deep Sky was founded in 2022 and specializes in direct air capture carbon removal.
Deep Sky investment terms
Megan Shay, Deep Sky’s vice-president of communications, called the investment “significant” and the “first of its kind for the bank”. An industry source said the amount was eight figures, or more than $10-million, but the terms and full breakdown of the broader $1.7-billion in deals were not disclosed.
Sidhu also said: “Investments like this help strengthen commercial ties between Canada and Japan while supporting the growth of innovative climate solutions developed in Canada and deployed globally,” tying the Deep Sky financing back to the wider mission. For Canadian firms looking at Japan, the clearest signal from Thursday is that the trade mission produced signed contracts, not just conversations.
