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ice President Jusuf Kalla, currently on a five-day visit to Japan, has encouraged Japanese companies to step up investment in Indonesia.

'€œWe discussed, among other things, opportunities to increase Japanese investment in Indonesia,'€ he told journalists after his meeting with representatives of Japanese companies in Tokyo on Monday.

Kalla met with representatives of Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Nomura and Sumitomo. Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) representatives were also present at the meeting. In 2014, a number of global media companies reported that Itochu had partnered with a Thai company, Charoen Pokphand, to invest more than US$8 billion in a Chinese state-owned company, CITIC Group, the biggest investment a Japanese trading company has ever made.

Indonesian Ambassador to Japan Yusron Ihza Mahendra said during the meeting Japanese companies had expressed concern about a number of issues, including land acquisition and work permits, that they deemed potentially detrimental to their business efforts.

Earlier, Kalla reported a high level of interest among large Japanese companies to invest in Indonesia following the rupiah'€™s continued depreciation.

'€œ[Japanese companies] are interested in expanding their business in the region and they want a smooth bureaucratic process,'€ said Kalla, adding that company representatives had also expressed worries related to the supply of gas and electricity, as well as port infrastructure.