Irish companies signed contracts worth $26 million (€28.5 million) during the Enterprise Ireland trade mission to Japan this week.

The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, announced in Tokyo yesterday that, in addition to the contracts, nine agency, distribution and partnership agreements were concluded between Japanese and Irish companies. It is understood these could yield another $25 million worth of business.

In Tokyo on the final day of the biggest and most successful Irish Trade mission abroad, the Tanaiste said the number of deals secured on the visit was evidence that Asia, and Japan in particular, held out major opportunities for Irish firms.

Ms Harney said that, despite the drop in the Nikkei this week and the possible spin-off effects, she was confident there was still a huge amount of business to be done in Japan.

She said the trade mission would considerably raise the profile of Ireland in Japan. During her visit this week, she said she was surprised by the level of knowledge of Ireland and of our booming economy among the Japanese business community.

On tourism, Ms Harney said it was hoped the number of Japanese visitors coming to Ireland would increase from 30,000 to 100,000 in the next four years as a result of an aggressive promotion by Bord Failte. She said the Japanese tourist was in the high spending category.

Ms Harney yesterday had a 35-minute meeting with Prime Minister Mr Yoshiro Mori, who earlier yesterday survived a no confidence motion in parliament. She also has separate meetings this week with the Minister for the Economy, Trade and Industry, Mr Takeo Hiranumama, and with the leader of the opposition, Mr Yukio Hatoyama.

A spokesman for Ms Harney described her meeting with the prime minister as "cordial and constructive". They discussed economic issues and the vibrancy of the Irish economy and, in particular, the great strides being made in the Irish IT and e-commerce sectors.

Mr Mori expressed an interest in coming to Ireland and presented Ms Harney with a CD of the Japanese version of When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, a favourite childhood song of his.

A total of 64 Irish firms participated in the trade mission from the telecoms, software, engineering, education, food ingredients and clothing sectors.

Ms Harney said it was hoped that eight Irish companies would start operations in the new business incubation unit in Tokyo which opened this week. This would bring the number of Irish companies operating in Japan to 24 compared to eight in 2000.

Total exports from Ireland to Japan in 1999 were £1.5 billion and for January to September in 2000 £1.8 billion. Japan is Ireland's largest trading partner in Asia and the seventh-largest trading partner in the world.

The chief executive of Enterprise Ireland, Mr Dan Flinter, was on the mission as were the enterprise director of Asia, Mr Paddy Delaney, and the Enterprise Ireland director for Japan, Mr Declan Collins.